Education systems are infamously myopic and the oft-worn attention-seeker 'I was born a Genius; Education ruined me' t-shirts certainly do have a grain of truth to them. The reproductive cycle of a frog from egg to tadpole to its final metamorphosis into an adult is only ONE of the reproductive modes of the group. In fact, an amazing 40 reproductive modes have been identified globally (Wells 2007, Gururaja 2012). These include: 1. Gastric brooding frogs of Australia (considered extinct) in which the female would swallow fertilized eggs and vomit out completely formed froglets 2. Tree frogs that build foam nests over streams or ponds whereby the tadpoles can drop into the water and swim their way to adulthood 3. Bush frogs that lay eggs in bamboo cavities and tiny froglets emerge completely bypassing the tadpole stage 4. A viviparous African toad that gives birth to completely developed froglets by providing nutrition through yolk 5. Midwife toads in which the male carries a string of fertilized eggs on his back to protect them from predators 6. Almost 100 fertilized eggs sink into the back of female Surinam toads which later develops a cyst to protect the eggs as they develop into froglets. The froglets exit her body when she sheds the protective skin. 7. Dancing frogs of the Western Ghats in which the female digs a cavity and deposits her eggs in the stream bed The Indian bullfrog, however, sticks to the textbook in the typical blinder-bound manner of a sniffling schoolboy and undergoes the complete cycle of metamorphosis. During the breeding season, the male frog attaches itself onto the back of a female. The female lays eggs that are covered by a protective gelatinous sheath whereupon the male releases his sperm fertilizing the eggs externally. The eggs later develop into tadpoles. The carnivorous tadpoles dwell close to the bottom of the water-body, stalking prey including other tadpoles. Juvenile frogs are mud-colored with a pattern of dark spots and stripes that easily camouflage them in muddy fields. Now if only the Indian education system would take a leaf out of the bullfrog's book and metamorphose into a useful beast.
0 Comments
I had quite an experience with Keerthi Krutha while volunteering on the project "Evaluation and Impact of the Chytrid fungus on Amphibians of the Western Ghats" by the Wildlife Information and Liaison Development (WILD) Society, Coimbatore. The killer chytrid fungus has been responsible for the catastrophic decline and extinction of atleast 200 odd species of frogs worldwide within a mere span of 3 decades! Chytridiomycosis affects amphibians through hyperkeratosis and they begin sloughing off their skin. This messes up their osmotic regulation and eventually leads to their death. The project I volunteered on studied the presence of the fungus in the biologically diverse Western Ghats. (You can refer to their 2013 PLoS ONE paper titled 'Endemic Asian Chytrid Strain Infection in Threatened and Endemic Anurans of the Northern Western Ghats' for the results of their first phase of surveys).
Searching for frogs is a fun activity! It involves you to bend over, placing each foot ahead with a curious tap-tap while examining the ground underneath with the intensity of a hawk-eyed headmistress admonishing a particularly mischievous student. Sometimes you get lucky, and are awarded with a startled frog hopping its way out of those clumsy 'oliphaunt' (Ah LOTR references!) sized feet of yours. Then of course, you catch the fella, molest it with a swab pushed up its thighs ignoring the squirming chap (courtesy Keerthi's imaginative perviness), make an entry into the datasheet, take GPS points and finally, release the indignant frog back where it belongs. 'Frogging' as it is lovingly called, is in stark contrast to 'Birding' where the researcher/bird lover stands a high chance of rolling into a ditch, getting electrocuted by an electric fence, stepping into a puddle of cow urine, falling off a cliff, tripping over roots and other jungle paraphernalia- basically everything that could go wrong when you walk with your head upwards and eyes eagerly scanning the trees for that wonderful and elusive migratory flycatcher. Frogging in Kerala was not entirely without its share of give-yourself-goosebumps thrills, especially when the electric fencing the birdwatcher walks into is meant to keep away (drumrolls please) the animal who lent its head to a god- the ELEPHANT. Never mind that elephants are intelligent creatures, who over time are known to bend the wooden poles of electric fences with uprooted trees and still 'trespass' into human territory. I am going to make a significantly yucky and slightly illogical comparison here- Imagine holding a blood gorged leech. Now start squeezing the leech, slowly watching the animal puke out the blood. The leech of course, is the Western Ghats. And you, my reader, are smart enough to make the grisly connection. So anyways, we had to keep our eyes peeled for the beautiful beasts (elephants, not leeches) lest a particularly horny tusker decided to pay unruly attention to our feminine charms. This is decidedly difficult when you are almost upto your knees in slush, surrounded by clumps of bamboo which reduce visibility to a few meters and encountering elephant poo everywhere. Add to that, the bamboos creak overhead, as bamboo is wont to do, and you mistake every creak for the snapping of a twig under the giant's foot. You are told that elephants move with a haunting silence in the forest, but jumpy nerves and an unfamiliarity with elephant behavior are the worst companions on a trip into the Ghats. All this time, Keerthi finds frogs, swabs them and releases them in the exact capture location (even if it is up a waterfall where she slips, breaks her nose and then breaks out into hysterical laughter). The show must go on…
With a smile plastered forever across its face, begging eyes that could bring a 5-month old babe to shame, squirming when intrusive objects are run across its inner thighs, and a grace that could befit a ballerina, a frog is more human than genetics let on. Okay, perhaps not the flies, though I have a hunch that if we looked at human history closer, we would find ancestors smacking their lips, barbequing flies gossiping over a crackling bonfire.
My trip to Kerala volunteering on the project ‘Evaluation and Assessment of the Chytrid Fungus in Amphibian Populations in the Western Ghats’ gave me an opportunity to observe these characters more closely than ever. The chytrid fungus is a deadly fungus that has been known to wipe out frog populations across the world, similar to numerous epidemics that have been assailing human populations since centuries on end. Here are some of the interesting characters from the frog world that we encountered: Pseudophilautus: This frog was the ultimate metrosexual Casanova- dark yet not quite, with a sprinkling of gold and silver rogue shining out from its underbelly, and perfectly shaped yellow finger-pads, singing its vocal sacs out, forever a ladies man. Euphlyctis (Skittering Frog): This frog was the mischief-maker, the boy who rings the doorbell and is too slippery to get your hands on and give a good thrashing. To be fair, the frog does secrete a slimy substance to facilitate escape once caught. In frog world, he would most certainly be god, what with its ability to literally walk on water (more like skittering, but if exageration didn’t make god, what did?) Fejervarya: The mdoern insurgent. Expertly camouflaged until you almost step on them, hiding around human habiatation as well as in forests, and wearing the scars of battle in the form of a missing limb or two, these frogs could teach a lesson or two to rebels. Or to the police. Or maybe both. Indirana: These are the daredevils, rock-climbing is in their blood and with a fashionable coma-shaped tattoo across their ears, they are ready to take on the world. Hylarana temporalis: This is the frog athlete. Lithe limbed and forever on the alert, this guy is a long-jump champion- always one step ahead of pesky predators(or in this case desperate biologists) Raorchestes akroparallagi: This frog is the flirtatious lover- hidden behind curtains of green, forever calling out to you, as your befuddled brain searches desperately for the source. It sounds suspiciously like a Gumnaan, and I was in the midst of an intense personal debate over ‘Flirty Frog vs Freaky Frog’ when I remembered the innocent charm that reflected off it under the flickering torchlight. Flirty Frog tugs at your heartstrings, every single time. Rhacophorus malabaricus: Much has been said about the endemic Malabar Gliding Frog. A celebrity without the tantrums, forever ready to pose for the camera, and escaping in a specially designed glider when the pressure becomes too much to handle, the Malabar Gliding Frog is India’s next Superstar. Hoplobatrachus tigerinus: The bizarre American- complete with a ridiculous yellow and blue garb during the mating season (Britons would likely nod in agreement at ‘bizarre’) and (if I wanted to poke fun at the slightly over healthy) endowed with all the obesity that would warrant the frog dropping dead of heart disease. (I take back the obesity remark, seeing that people in glass houses aren’t in any position to throw stones at others). Contrary to its American association, the frog is known as the Indian Bullfrog (which actually makes more sense - gold rings adorning every finger, t-shirts with cheesy pick-up lines, tomato red pants and scissor-shaped earings plus a diet of buttery pav bhaji, cheese-burst pizzas and rasagollas: here’s your quintessential urban Indian) Clinotarsus curtipes: If I had to have a crush in the frog world, it would be on the Bicolored Frog. He’s the James Bond of the frog world- the Sean Connery one mind you, not the insipid charm of Pierce Brosnan or senior citizen Daniel Craig. Sitting tall, dignified, wearing a cream & black suit with a speckling of white and orange to match his uber cool personality, this fellow hops across a velvet chocolate carpet of leaves, next to gurlging stream beds. You almost expect him to swish around on his toes like a ballerina or to do a Cowboy gun swivel. Unlike the Hylarana though, he was rather unsuccessful at escaping from us wretched science-people. Next time we are in the Ghats, lets ask the driver to use those car brakes coz squishing frogs certainly ain’t cool. Neither is encroaching illegally on their land, driving them towards batracho-suicidal tendencies. Besides, homicide is a punishable offence inviting insect invasions, subsequent starvation and death. P.S: Keerthi, you were right after all :P (with edits from Keerthi Krutha) |
AuthorRamblings on wildlife sharing spaces with non-wild humans Archives
December 2019
Categories
All
|