Purple frog

Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis · The purple frog is a plump, pig-snouted frog species endemic to the Western Ghats of India.

Also called Indian purple frog, Pignose frog, Mahabali frog.

Purple frog
Photo: Karthickbala at ta.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Purple frog
Photo: David V. Raju, CC BY-SA 4.0
Purple frog
Photo: David V. Raju, CC BY-SA 4.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassAmphibia
OrderAnura
FamilyNasikabatrachidae
GenusNasikabatrachus
SpeciesNasikabatrachus sahyadrensis

Where it lives

Moist forests of the Western Ghats mountains.

Fun facts

  • Female purple frogs carry the smaller males piggyback to egg-laying sites in stream crevices.
  • A female can lay about 3,000 eggs at once, and the tadpoles take around 100 days to metamorphose.
  • Males call to females from beneath a thin layer of soil instead of coming up to the surface.
  • Its tadpoles have special oral suckers that let them cling on and survive in torrential mountain streams.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).