Corsican Painted Frog
Corsica is a beautiful little French island that lies in the Mediterranean Sea. Not only is this island special because it has both beautiful mountains and sunny beaches, it also has a special kind of frog. The frog is named the Corsican painted frog, and it is an extremely rare and very old species. Even though it is an old species, scientists only discovered it in 1984. The habitat of the Corsican painted frog is very specific and very small. This species of frog only lives in the mountain streams in the center of the island. They can live as high up on the mountain as 1,900 meters. The freshwater streams are small and rocky, and the frogs tend to prefer shallow water, especially when they lay their eggs. It is important for the frogs that the water is moving. The diet of the Corsican painted frog is very similar to most frogs. They eat insects and spiders. Unlike many frogs, they do not catch their prey with long sticky tongues. This species of frog has a short disk-shaped tongue, so they catch their prey by just grabbing it with their mouths. Unlike most species of frog, the male is larger than the female. Usually the males are smoother than the females as well. Most Corsican painted frogs are between 4.5 to 6.5 centimeters long. The color of the frogs’ skin ranges from brown to green to grey. Usually it is in a blotchy pattern to provide camouflage for the frogs in the rocky streams and forest floor habitat. To help with the camouflage, the frogs usually have warts that make their skin seem bumpy. The belly is usually paler and smoother than the rest of the frog. The back legs are very long and strong so that the frog has the ability to jump far. Like most other frogs, the Corsican painted frog lays eggs. The eggs are laid in clumps of between 500 to 1,000 eggs. The mother lays the eggs in the same stream in which she lives. To protect the eggs, the mother may lay her eggs under rocks or stones in the stream. The eggs will hatch into tadpoles, and in three to eight weeks, the little tadpoles will change into fullgrown frogs. Since the habitat of this frog is so small, it is in danger of extinction. If the forests in which they live are used for buildings, the frog will have nowhere to live. The mountain streams in the center of the small island of Corsica are the only place in the entire world that these frogs are found, and if they are not protected, it would be easy to lose them. They are classified as near threatened.
