Bleeding Toad (Leptophryne cruentata)

Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 180516584

Annual Monitoring of Frogs and Toad Community at Mount Gede Pangrango, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia

 

  Despite their diversity, amphibians in Indonesia typically received little attention. Slamet Mountain ranges from 1,400 to 5,400 m above sea level, and one of the last remaining pristine habitats in Central Java. Although the size of natural habitat remaining in Central Java is small, it harbours diverse wildlife, mostly living inside the national park or other protected areas (Wikramanayake et al., 2002). Slamet Mountain is popular for hiking, with an estimate of around 30,000 visitors climb the summit annually (Whitten et al., 1996). Our project will concern to all frog species in this area, but our primary species for this project is Leptophryne cruentata. Based on Wikramanayake et al. (2002), these frogs are key species in this ecosystem area so keeping them is one of the effort to keep the ecosystem balance. Habitat loss and fragmentation is the biggest threat to frogs in this area. Area that are used as breeding areas by frogs are being filled, drained, and developed for ecotoursim spot. Many people fail to realize the importance of them in the biotic community. So, by assessing this frogs species, we can manifest the rate of habitat loss and fragmentation in this area.

 

Slamet Mountain is one of Biodiversity Reservoir in Central Java province was established in March 1980. Field activities started October 26,2017, which has objectives to resurvey previous sites in Mt. Slamet and settle on new location in southeastern slope of Mt.Slamet. A campsite as research station has been established in the slope of Mt.Slamet, there are Cipendog, Gomblang and Gunung Malang ,and an exisitng trail used to survey the monkeys. During five days survey (26-30 oct,2017) six groups of Leptophryne were found. A group in Cipendog site , five groups in Gomblang. This is unique because no publication said that we will find this species in Slamet Mountain area. We also suggest to find another endangered frog species in our list. New locations that will be surveyed are described in the map of Mt Slamet.Previous study that had been done suggest that there are need to monitor amphibian population in this area because its population trend was decreasing.