Scientists have described three new frog species that dwell exclusively in the spiky leaves of pandan trees in Madagascar’s eastern rainforests. Lead researcher Hugh Gabriel, from the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, described the frogs’ sounds as “soft clicks that sound like rain falling on leaves.” And he would know. Gabriel and his team spent years braving the razor-sharp leaves to reveal not just the new frogs but entire communities dependent on the water that collects in the grooves and nooks of pandan (Pandanus spp.) plants. “Each tree was like a treasure chest; once we got past the jagged, barbed leaves, there was a wealth of biodiversity within each plant,” Gabriel told Mongabay in an email. “I spent my research days crashing towards the center of these trees where the water collects, alongside my guide Evariste.” While the frogs are new to science, many locals, including Gabriel’s local guide Evariste Desire were already aware of the frogs. “They’ve been seen by Malagasy people for thousands of years, known as the secretive Sahona vakoa, or ‘frogs of the Pandanus,’” Gabriel said. One of the newly named frogs, Guibemantis ambakoana. Ambakoana means ‘living within Pandanus’ in Malagasy. Image courtesy of Hugh Gabriel. The newly named Guibemantis vakoa. Vakoa is the word for the Pandanus tree in Malagasy. Image courtesy of Hugh Gabriel. Recognizing the frogs as new species, Gabriel said, was “a gradual event — a slow assembly of different observations that culminated in the declaration that it was, indeed, a…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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