Species Spotlight: Critically Endangered Ankarafa skeleton frog

In 2024 we announced our pledge to conserve and protect 97 species facing major threats in the wild, as part of the Reverse the Red initiative. Since then, we have shone a spotlight on five of our six flagship species, Critically Endangered turquoise dwarf gecko, Critically Endangered blue-eyed black lemurs, Critically Endangered Negros bleeding-heart dove, Endangered white-clawed crayfish, and Critically Endangered Corfu Toothcarp.

Our final blog in this series is focused on the Critically Endangered Ankarafa skeleton frog, native to a single forest fragment in the Sahamalaza-Iles Radama National Park on Madagascar’s northwestern coast.

Very little is known about this incredibly rare species, Boophis ankarafensis, which was first described around 10 years ago along two streams in the Ankarafa Forest. Upon discovery, by current Bristol Zoological Society lecturer and conservationist Dr Sam Penny, the species was quickly classified as Critically Endangered, as it resided in only a single patch of forest, which remains hugely threatened despite its protected status.

Habitat destruction in Madagascar is a big problem for all species that call the island home. Widespread deforestation for subsistence agriculture, illegal logging, and charcoal production has had, and continues to have, a severe impact on the island's unique biodiversity. This, along with climate change, has meant that native species have been forced into small fragments of forest, greatly affecting their population numbers.

Co-supervised and supported by Bristol Zoological Society, University of Bristol MRes student Leo Lasrado is currently working with Malagasy colleagues from the Society and the Lemur Conservation Association in the National Park, to undertake the first formal surveys of amphibian species there for more than a decade.

Leo is using a combination of visual transect surveys, bioacoustic monitoring of frog calls and habitat surveys, to evaluate the presence or absence of resident frogs, including the Critically Endangered Ankarafa skeleton frog, and their distributions across this landscape.

Similarly, the spiny bright-eyed frog, Boophis tsilomaro, which is also Critically Endangered, is thought to only inhabit a single forest fragment called Anabohazo, in a different region of the National Park. Leo will be surveying both of these last remaining forest fragments, as well as a number of other unsurveyed and smaller patches of forest elsewhere in the Park. Formally confirming and updating the presence and distribution of these threatened species will be hugely important in allowing the design of future conservation actions to address the threats to their existence.  

More information about our conservation work around the world can be found below.

The Ankarafa skeleton frog is kindly sponsored by Green Frog Connect.