If they could, all the frogs of the world would croak a toast to this. Twelve new species of frogs have been discovered in the jungles of the Western Ghats, among the largest such reported finds, and a giant leap for amphibian research.

S D Biju of Delhi University and Franky Bossyut of the Amphibian Evolution Lab, Vrije University, Brussels, have published their findings in the latest issue of the Zoological Journal of Linnean Society, London, one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific journals. This is the first time that 12 frog species finds have been reported in a single issue of a publication.

The discoveries are the result of 10 years of extensive field studies in the Western Ghats. Biju, a reader and associate professor at DU’s School of Environmental Studies, says he hopes it will help people understand that frogs, one of the oldest living land vertebrates, “are as much a custodian of the earth as humans are”.

The discoveries include the ‘rediscovery’ of a lost species. The Travancore bushfrog (Philautus travancoricus) had not been seen in over a century, and was considered extinct. But one rainy night in Bodinayakannur, a town on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, Biju saw the little red frog as he sat croaking under a tall bush on the fringes of a tea plantation.

The new discoveries — all bright tree or shrub frogs — are Philautus chota, Philautus jayarami, Philautus marki, Philautus sushili, Philautus munnarensis, Philautus kani, Philautus kaikatti, Philautus chromasynchysi, Philautus chlorosomma, Philautus amboli and Philautus akroparallagi.

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