17/05/2025
SOUTHERN TORRENT FROG (Athroleptides yakusini)
The Southern Torrent Frog (Athroleptides yakusini) is a frog species which is exclusive to the Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania (Uluguru, Udzungwa, and Mahenge Mountains) at the altitude of 300 to 2800 meters above sea level. The Southern Torrent Frog is the mid-size member of the Petropedetidae family (African torrent frogs) whose representative species occupy the spry zones of forest or savannah streams and waterfalls
Southern Torrent Frog is a nocturnal frog hiding under rocks to escape the sunlight and coming out at night to feed with a diet possibly including smaller frogs on small frogs. They have an eye stripe that is orange-reddish and have countershading preoccolation (white underbelly with grey-brown mottled skin on torso). Breeding males undergo secondary sexual adaptation including swellings on forearms alongside spines on throat and chin. The tadpoles are specially adapted to survive in the thin water on rocks in streams.
Conservation Status and Threats
“Agricultural intensification and habitat destruction results in range fragmentation” is the primary reason deforestation is considered a major threat for Southern Torrent Frog, categorized Endangered by the IUCN Red List. Other potential threats include diseases such as chytridiomycosis which led to the significant decline of amphibian populations globally. Being biodiversity hot spots, Eastern Arc Mountains are also threatened by logging, firewood collection, bushfires, and agricultural expansion which lowers the quality of the amphibian habitats.
We need to ensure conservation actions to save thise species