Rose's Ghost Frog

Fascinating facts about the Rose's Ghost Frog

• A female Rose's ghost frog can grow to 60 mm (about 2.4 in) while the male tops out at 50 mm (2.0 in), allowing it to cling to the sheer rock faces of Table Mountain’s gorges.
• The tadpoles sport up to 17 rows of tiny labial teeth and a massive oral disc, allowing them to scramble up wet vertical rocks just like miniature climbers, a skill that lets them survive in the permanent streams of the mountain.
• Breeding kicks off each November when the streams are low but temperatures rise, and the males have tiny black spines on their forearms and legs.
• The frog’s entire known range is limited to the southern, eastern, and marginal western slopes of Table Mountain.
• The species is listed as #11 on the EDGE list of top amphibian priorities and is threatened by pine-plantation drainage and early-1900s stream diversions that leave its mountain streams at risk of drying up.

At a glance

About the Rose's Ghost Frog

Rose's ghost frog (Heleophryne rosei) is a medium-sized amphibian that dazzles with a pale green canvas splashed in purple-brown blotches, its limbs tipped by unusually large, triangular discs that cling to the slick rock faces of Table Mountain. Females can reach up to 60 mm (2.4 in) while males are slightly smaller at 50 mm (2.0 in), and a rudimentary thumb appears as a distinct inner metacarpal tubercle. The half-webbed feet leave the fifth toe’s final phalanx free, a subtle adaptation for navigating the vertical, moist gorges where the species lives. By night the frogs perch on ledges or in vegetation, retreating into cracks and under large stones by day, hunting a diet of small insects and forest arthropods. Their tadpoles, lacking jaw sheaths but bearing up to 17 rows of posterior labial teeth, sport a large oral disc that lets them climb wet rock walls, remaining in permanent streams for a full 12-month development cycle.

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