Reproduction

How does the ornate frog produce its young?

Breeding takes place at the beginning of the rainy season.

Ornate frogs are considered explosive breeders producing large numbers of young when temporary water courses and small mud holes fill to allow for this.

Males will call at the edge of the water with the aim of attracting a female. She will deposit her eggs singly and the male then fertilizes them.

Young begin life in their larval form as a tadpole in the water. Growth is fast. The tadpoles match the color of the bottom of the water course they inhabit. This helps them to avoid predation. This color may be beige, brown or olive.

During the larva stage this species is cannibalistic and will feed on other tadpoles.

Behavior

What does the ornate frog do with its day?

These animals burrow underground and only emerge during the breeding season. This allows them to avoid the heat in their range.

Credit: Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Predators and Threats

What is impacting the survival of the ornate frog?

A population trend for this species has not been determined but it is considered common across the areas where it is is found. The populations are patchily distributed as their preferred habitat is rare.

Small numbers are captured for sale in to the pet trade but this is not believed to represent a major threat. They are also used for food and in traditional medicines in parts of their range.

They are considered adaptable to some changes in their habitat.

Quick facts

These animals may also be known as the African ornate frog, southern ornate frog, common ornate frog, Budgett’s burrowing frog or Hildebrandt’s burrowing frog.

Their genus name, Hildebrandtia is in honor of Johann Maria Hildebrandt, a German botanist and explorer.

Their species name comes from the Latin, ‘ornata’ which means decorated and references their highly patterned skin.