25th February
by Dr Ian Anderson
Day 10 started for some of us with Pat’s early morning yoga session in the garden, watched as always by the grey langurs. As the day’s topic was Aquatic animal biology, ecology and disease investigation focusing on amphibians Pat included “frog pose” to our routine for the day. There was a Cobra pose too for the reptile enthusiasts.
The first lecture from Prof Lee Skerrat (University of Melbourne) gave us an overview of the importance of amphibians as environmental indicators and their extinction risk with a conservation status of 33% of species regarded as threatened. We then had an overview of amphibian disease with particular emphasis on diseases affecting Australian amphibians.
This was followed by a more in-depth discussion on Chytridiomycosis, a fungal infection of amphibians particularly anurans (frogs and toads). Introduced from Asia through movement of amphibians this disease has been responsible for mass mortality events in several parts of the world including Australia and Central America.
Two scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India, Naitik and Bitupan (known as the Herp guys!), then gave two excellent talks about the species in India, concentrating on some of the amphibians and snakes. Particularly useful were the tips on how to differentiate venomous from non-venomous species.
My Scottish schoolboy sense of humour had me chortling every time the Skittering frog (Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis) was mentioned as in Scots which would translate as the Diarrhoea frog!
Fieldwork in the afternoon was really enjoyable. Everyone is excited about a daily spot prize for the herpetologist of the day! First, we checked pitfall traps that had been dug beside a nearby waterhole. These had successfully trapped a variety of invertebrates alongside cricket frogs and narrow-mouthed frogs. Then as daylight faded we split into groups and performed an amphibian search a dry streambed that drained into the waterhole using head torches as it got darker with all groups successfully finding a variety of species (including of course the diarrhoea frog!). Unfortunately, the search had to be brought to a rapid finish due to reports of a tiger hunting in the area.
And herpetologist of the day? The winner (and grateful recipient of an Echidna keyring) was Mirza for finding two Water Scorpions, yes they’re insects! go figure!!