Saturday, August 4, 2012

Daily Photos: Bathroom Herpin,' Frog Edition

We've found a decent amount of frogs and toads so far on Pulau Tioman, including Banded Bullfrogs (one plump sucker of a species) and Giant River Toads (who remind me of a jungle stream version of the Sonoran Desert's venerable Bufo alvarius). This however was my first bathroom amphibian. Not my first water closet herp though, as the geckos like to run amok in there, with poop raining down from the ceilings on a regular basis. I've had many spiders, mosquitoes, moths and more in the bathroom, but no go on amphibians until I ran into this fella one morning before I headed out to go on boat patrol.




Quite the handsome species it was: the Four-lined Tree Frog (Polypedates leucomystax). These frogs are commonly found around Tioman and on 7 other islands in the Seribuat Archipelago. Awesome species note from Grismer's field guide to the area: "This species lays its eggs in a foam nest derived from the skin secretions of amplexing frogs. Often this may be a female with one to several males on her back"




I left before 7am since I was on boat patrol, so Alli slept in a little. In amusing fashion the frog was still there when she headed to the bathroom later on in the morning. Unbeknownst to her I had already snapped a ton of photos of this specimen, so she clicked a few more. Luckily for the frog, by then it had removed that gross bathroom hair that was stuck to its porous skin. 


2 comments:

  1. How to it attach itself to the smooth tiles?

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    1. Mom - they got some impressive toe pads to make sticking to a completely vertical wall look so dang easy.

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