“The forest department officers try to prevent these kinds of groups coming. But they use higher officials – politicians, high court judges, or something like that – to allow them to take photographs,” he said.
“I fell in love with these frogs after seeing them. You feel like they’re jet black in colour, but when you put them under light you can find all the stars – like galaxies on their bodies. It’s just magical.”
Dr Benjamin Tapley, ZSL’s curator of reptiles and amphibians, said the galaxy frogs are likely an “ancient”, “irreplaceable” branch on the tree of life.
“I grimace every time I see a photo come up on my feed of a galaxy frog,”
These nature photographers had
been turning over logs in their search
for the endangered species, according
to the trackers. When they found
them, they would capture and prop
up the frogs for photos. But they
didn’t wear gloves, even though these
delicate creatures breathe through
their skin and are incredibly
sensitive.
One tracker told Rajkumar that two
small galaxy frogs had died after
being handled for too long by
photographers.
“He said they would take the animal
to some nice background or mossy
log to take the photograph, relocating
it from one place to another to get
better photos. On that day they got
five or six frogs and two of them
died.”
Environment
‘Magical galaxy frogs
disappear after reports of
photographers destroying
their habitats
6h ago
| a 2 Ekg %, 2503