Anaimalai flying frog

In news- Anaimalai flying frog has got a new home.

Key updates-

A Naturalist, frog enthusiast and Kerala Tourism guide has constructed two ponds at Windermere Estate to restore the habitat for the Anaimalai flying frog.
He sought support from the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), which took it up as its first rapid action project for amphibian conservation and offered to fund it.
There is a popular misconception that these frogs feed on the cardamom pods.
But they don’t feed on the pods and instead they feed on insects and other pests.

About Anaimalai flying frog-

The frog is also called the false Malabar gliding frog and false Malabar tree frog.
Scientific name is Rhacophorus pseudomalabaricus.
It is endemic to the Anaimalai Hills, a part of the southern the Western Ghats in the Tamil Nadu and Kerala states, India.
It is a slender-bodied frog.
It has a concave head and a rounded, laterally-oriented snout that projects slightly beyond its lower jaw.
The fingers and toes are extensively webbed and the webbing is light yellow.
Juveniles have a distinctive black zebra-like pattern that becomes fainter in adults, resembling venation of leaf.
The numbers of these frogs have declined rapidly due to the loss of habitat.
It has been recorded in tropical moist evergreen forest, in secondary forests on the fringe of abandoned cardamom plantation, in a marshy area beside a perennial stream and near an artificial water hole between the evergreen forest and tea plantation.
This species is known from at least two protected areas, Indira Gandhi National Park and Parambikulam Tiger Reserve.
IUCN status: Critically endangered