A rare blue frog found in the Kimberley region of Western Australia has stunned researchers, who say the unusual colouring is probably due to a genetic mutation causing it to lose certain skin pigments.
As its name suggests, the magnificent tree frog (Litoria splendida) is already a spectacular animal, so when at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy鈥檚 Charnley River-Artesian Range Wildlife Sanctuary saw a bright blue specimen on a bench in a workshop in April, he was shocked.
The amphibians are normally a vibrant green, which is a common colour for tree frogs and is thought to camouflage them.
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鈥淚 knew as soon as I saw it that it was rare,鈥� says Barker. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not often that you get to see a blue frog.鈥� It has been seen a number of times since, but won鈥檛 be captured for research, he says.
鈥淚t鈥檚 far too pretty and far too unique and it would be a pity to take it away from its natural habitat,鈥� says Barker. 鈥淲e鈥檒l leave it to live out its days and hopefully get to see it many more times in the future.鈥�
at the Australian Museum in Sydney says the animal may be the 鈥渕ost beautiful, aberrant-coloured frog鈥� that she has ever seen. 鈥淎nd I have seen tens of thousands of frogs.鈥�
From the photos she has seen, Rowley says the frog is at least 2 to 3 years old. The species may live to be 20 years old, so the blue individual is likely to be around for a while unless caught by a predator.
She says frogs鈥� skin colour is determined by the combination of three chemicals 鈥� melanophores, which provide blacks and browns; xanthophores, which provide yellow pigments; and iridophores, which reflect blue colours. Normally, the yellows and blues combine to make green, but it is thought the new blue frog has a mutation that means it is missing the yellow pigments and the blue dominates.
鈥淏lue is probably a bit more obvious to predators,鈥� says Rowley, 鈥渨hich is why we don鈥檛 see many blue frogs.鈥�
