15 February 2010

Wallace's Flying Frog

I just spent two wonderful days at the UBD Research Centre at Kuala Belalong in Temburong, on a Brunei Nature Society trip organised by my UBD colleague, Ulmar Grafe. One of the things we saw there was a Wallace's flying frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus):

These frogs have webbed feet that allow them to glide quite effectively through the air, and this is why they are described as 'flying frogs'. They are unique to the region, which illustrates why Brunei is such a splendid place for studying biology.

I asked Ulmar why flying frogs are only found in this region, and not, for example, in the Amazon forests. He said that the reason is not certain, but it might be because the forest canopy is higher here, which gives an advantage to frogs that can travel efficiently from tree to tree.

While we were admiring this creature, my wife asked if we could see it flying, and another participant on the trip, Edith (who is from France) thought she had asked to see it frying. I'm not sure if this is because, being Chinese, my wife doesn't differentiate [fl] and [fr] too clearly at the start of a word, or if French people immediately think of food when they see a frog. Maybe it was a combination of these two factors.