Specimen Showcase | 📢 Musical Space Cowboys

🖌️Kaloula pulchra (Gray, 1831), the Asiatic painted bullfrog, is a species of narrow-mouthed frog found naturally in Hong Kong and much of Southeast Asia. 🌏 It’s also been introduced in other parts of the world such as Guam and Australia. It is known by various names, including “banded bullfrog”, “rice frog”, “bubble frog” and even “chubby frog”, which, body-shaming aside, is nothing if not accurate - see for yourself! 🐸 They live in wet places: under leaf litter, in rice fields, and in burrows underground; and mainly consume insects. 🐜

👂 Even if you’ve never heard of the banded bullfrog, you’ve probably heard it - its operatic love-bellows are hard to ignore! 🎶 The males are total amphibian Pavarottis (if Pavarotti sounded more like a cow), and during the rainy breeding seasons they let out the loudest musical cries for attention. 🌧️ Since it’s been quite wet lately, they have already been audible this year, starting from mid-March, and if I had to describe their call onomatopoeically, it’s somewhere between a muted “hooooooonk” and a rumbly “maaaaaaaaaaaahng”. I’m sure you know what I mean. The first time I heard the sound, it conjured up strong images of an impending alien cow invasion, equal parts implausible and terrifying. 🐄🛸 After a little exploration, I spotted one of the culprits through a drain grate. It’s hard to express my amazement at the discovery that such a tiny being could make such a ruckus! 🤯 I was looking at it and hearing it, and yet the two couldn’t possibly go together. The cattle from outer space theory just made more sense. 🔫

Male chubby frogs range around 55-67 mm in length, with females being just a little larger, 55-75 mm. The males’ call is louder than any cattle I’ve ever heard - in a scream-off, even the most powerful bull would be put to shame. 🐮 These rhythmic bullfrog calls attract females to breeding pools and announce to other males that this pool is taken, so stay away. 🎤 You often come across “choruses”, groups of male banded bullfrogs sat in the same area, singing not at all in sync, obnoxiously competing for the ladies’ attention (hence why I thought of an alien cow army and not just one perfectly manageable alien cow). They float in water by inflating their bodies when they’re ready to mate, which usually happens in the early morning after a night of heavy honking. Afterwards the females lay the eggs which float in those same rain pools. 🥚 Tadpoles feed on plant detritus and microorganisms (phyto- & zooplankton) and grow up in about two to three weeks.

Chubby frogs are sometimes kept as pets but they much prefer to be left alone. When they feel attacked, they inflate their bodies (like that balloon in Shrek) by filling their lungs to appear bigger. They also secrete a sticky white substance that, although harmless, tastes bad to predators, so that they’ll spit them up. 🤢 Better out than in, I always say.

Meet our chubby frog at the HKBM. Perhaps he was once a renowned honker. 💁‍♂️

Text: Elvira Rey Redondo

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