Although the origin of the name “Ghost Frog” is unknown, it is believed that it originated because some frogs are found in Skeleton Gorge on Table Mountain. This makes a nice and attractive story, but the origin is uncertain. What I can tell you is that this one difficult frog to find!
There body is flattened and can hide in the smallest cracks and under rocks. Sometimes you hear them calling and you can even pin point under which rock or which crack, but finding them is another story. They are like ghosts disappearing into thin air or should I say cracks – my definition of why they are Ghost Frogs.
I was fortunate to be able to collect a sub adult male while searching for tadpoles early November this year. What a bonus seeing a frog in my net instead of tadpoles. In the last 12 months working on ghost frogs, this was only the third one I’ve seen. I only know of one other record reported by a local nature conservator working for MTO. This makes four records over the last 12 months. Before this the last reported sighting was before 2000.
To understand this secretive and rare species we need to do more research. I’m hoping to answer some of these questions in my quest of finding the GHOST of all the FROGS.
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