The Dancing Frog!

Western ghats of India, holds a wide range of surprises with fascinating life in it. There are a lot many wonders hidden in this jungle. One such thing is the "Dancing frog".

Deep inside the forests of western ghats, there would be many small and large streams which usually run gently like the music of flute but during monsoons, they would be gushing with water. There lives a special kind of frog, called Torrent Frog, of the size of a thumb, or even less than that with a unique life style.

​ Frogs usually breed by the process where male calls and announces its location to its mate, for mating, then egg laying and so on. But the dancing frogs, which has chosen torrents as their habitat can't be heard amidst the water flow. They have a unique way of attracting their mate - by stretching its hind limbs like kick boxer. This activity makes it look like a dancing frog, and often this behaviour is known as "foot flagging".

Yes... literally!

They not only attracts the mate, but also use this technique to intimidate other competitors in that area. When they find a competitor, the competing male will keep doing this kick boxing or foot flagging by stretching each leg repeatedly, until the competitor moves away from that place.

There are many species of dancing frogs under the genus Micrixalus, which has different ways of attracting its mate. Some may do both calling with balloon sacks along with stretching its legs. Some will just do the leg stretching without calling.

The Micrixalus kottigeharensis, found in Agumbe, calls as well as stretch its legs. Their balloon sacks are white in colour for better attraction under dark canopy of western ghats.

Whereas, the call of Micrixalus niluvasei from the same stream of Agumbe is very feeble at the same time it does a weak foot flagging.

The Micrixalus kodayari, which is found in Coorg areas does only foot flagging, which has a bright white palm to attract its mate, under the dark canopy of the rainforest.

These amazing creatures are extremely vulnerable to habitat loss, water pollution, etc. Researchers had discovered these extremely unique frogs not even a decade ago from western ghats, and more such wonders are still revealed day by day. It is our responsibility to spread awareness of such wonders of nature to our younger generation before they become extinct from the face of Earth.