Indigo Bush Frog - A New One :)

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Indigo Bush Frog - Raorchestes indigo | Kudremukh Massif (elevation approx. 1700 m), Kudremukh Tiger Reserve.

This species was discovered very recently and was described scientifically only last year. It gets its name from the bright indigo colour on the thighs, groin and armpits. The presently known range of this species is very tiny- it is known only from the shola-grassland patch around Kudremukh peak, above 1700 m.

We had almost no information to go by when trying to find this species. Although we were planning to locate it by ear, this turned out to be more of a serendipitous find, as this female jumped out on the path right in front of us. Made a long journey consisting of multiple bus trips to get from Goa to Kudremukh and then trekked 8 km to the peak to see this frog. By far the longest I have travelled for a single species. :)

Canon 500D, Canon 100 mm Macro USM
SS 1/200
Av 13
ISO 400
Minor crop
Cloning/healing done here to remove a few distracting specks of dirt.

Thanks, C&C welcome.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Great sighting. Your efforts paid off, and it appeared right in front of you :). Nice colours and details. Thanks for sharing.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Great to see this species Abhishek..very colourful and you have framed it well.

To choose or to be chosen is a matter for destiny's musings, but very often one is chosen for he is worthy.

TFS
Roopak

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Interesting. This fellow seems to have only two digits in its foreleg? I had never seen this before. Thanks for sharing. Do share some more information about its habits.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Sabyasachi-
It does have all four toes, they are not all visible in this image.
Nothing much is known about its habits yet, except the range and habitat it occupies. We did hear a few calls that were new to us, but not sure they belong to this species. No recordings unfortunately.