Black Mountain Boulder Frog

Black Mountain Boulder Frog
Black Mountain Boulder Frog
Female of Black Mountain Boulder Frog (Cophixalus saxatilis)
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Microhylidae
Genus: Cophixalus
Species: C. saxatilis
Binomial name
Cophixalus saxatilis
Zweifel & Parker, 1977

The Black Mountain Boulder Frog (aka Rock Haunting Frog) (Cophixalus saxatilis) is a species of frog in the Microhylidae family.

It is endemic to Australia, and its populations are now restricted to the Black Mountain (Kalkajaka) National Park, Australia[1].

Its original habitats were subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, rocky areas, and caves, now severely reduced to the "Black Mountains" 25 km south-west of Cooktown, Queensland[1]

Contents

Description

The Queensland Environmental Protection Agency has described and summarized some of the distinctive features of this frog as follows:[1]

The vulnerable Black Mountain boulderfrog or rock haunting frog (Cophixalus saxatilis) is the largest (about the size of a walnut) of Australia’s microhylids — a group of frogs normally confined to the leaf litter of tropical rainforests.

This large-eyed frog lays its eggs on land rather than in water. An adult tends to the eggs and young, which hatch as fully formed froglets. They have no tadpole stage.

The bright yellow female frog and the smaller mottled brown male are more easily heard than seen. Their call is a sharp tapping noise.

They have acquired an almost crab-like ability to scuttle on the granite boulders, although they can still disappear in a series of leaps when alarmed. At night these frogs emerge to forage on the boulders of the mountain and in and about the scattered figs and fringing monsoon forest.
Male and juvenile of the Black Mountain Boulder Frog (Cophixalus saxatilis)

See also

  • Black Mountain (Kalkajaka) National Park

References

  1. ^ a b c Environmental Protection Agency (Qld) "Black Mountain (Kalkajaka) National Park — Nature, culture and history" 24 February 2009

External links