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Project Noah Nature School
Calyptocephalella gayi
Large frog, up to 200 mm long from snout to vent, weighing up to 500 g. Robust body, strong limbs, short in relation to body. Finger and toe tips round, well-developed interdigital webbing. Big head, wide at base, with short round snout. Skin with glands irregularly placed on all the dorsal region. Greenish brown dorsal region with irregular dark spots. Whitish to yelowish abdominal region. Males have a dark gular region. Pigmentation and sexual ornaments on internal border of the hand. Small eyes in relation to the head, eyes dorsally placed with vertical pupil. Visible timpanic ring.
Chilean endemic frog species. Found from Coquimbo administrative region to Los Lagos administrative region. Also reported at Aysen administrative region; possibly forming part of a small introduced population. Aquatic habits, living in lagoons and slow-flowing streams with abundant vegetation (ponds with lentic water). Short post metamorphic period carried out in terrestrial environments. Excellent swimmers while out the water, movements are clumsy and heavy due to short limbs. Generally buried in the mud. Their diet is composed by crustaceans, fish or other amphibians, including those of their own species. Its exceptionally eats rodents and small birds. Reproductive period varies depending on geographic area. Eggs are found between August and Febraury. Tadpoles reach 100 mm long and metamorphose after, approximately 10 months.
Classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN and the Chilean Species Classification Regulation (RCE, by its Spanish abbreviation). Their main threats are direct extraction for human consumption of their meat. Introduction of exotic fish (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and amphibian (Xenopus laevis). Draining of lagoons and swamps due to urbanization.
Spotted on May 1, 2016
Submitted on May 1, 2016
15 Comments
Nice series! I had never heard of this species until now.
Yeah it is a tadpole and it does not have any legs yet.
Is that a tadpole in the last photo? It's massive! The reason I ask is that I can't see any legs, or are they tucked in underneath? Congrats, Juan, on your much-deserved SOTW. Great photo series, and excellent info.
GREAT SOTW
Congratulation on the spotting of the week!
Congratulations and welcome to Project Noah Juan!
Congratulations Juan! Very well deserved, it's an excellent spotting. Thank you for sharing :)
Thank you Lisa for encouraging me to fill this spotting information. I hope I can find another rare spotting in my country. Greetings! :)
Congratulations JuanContardo! This rare spotting has been selected by our PN Ranger team as our featured Spotting of the Week!
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Thank you Juan! This is an exceptional spotting!
Lisa thank you for your comments. I managed to find a book of amphibians from Chile that has a description of each species both in Spanish and English. I wrote this information just right now in Project Noah... sorry for the delay, but I am working in my Master thesis and it is a pretty load of work. Hope you like the information. Greetings!
Juan, No tiene que ser super detallada. También hay translaters en línea disponibles y tenemos varios Rangers bilingües que pueden atrapar todo lo que es el mal camino . Esto habría hecho un lugar de retiro del día , pero será excluido debido a la falta de información .
Juan, It does not have to be super detailed. There are also online translaters available and we have several bilingual Rangers that can catch anything that is astray. This would have made a terrific spot of the day, but will be excluded because of the lack of information.
Thank you Lisa... I am really busy right now, so I do not have time to write about the habitat, nor the species itself. Furthermore, I am not an English native speaker, so it is a litlle more difficult for me to write in English. Although, I will try to upload this type of information when I have the time for that. Greetings!
This is an incredibly cool spotting but to be considered for any recognition, the description and the habitat where you found them needs to be complete! Be sure to tell us in your own words about this species!