MICRO FROG

Critically Endangered and super small.
This is a Micro Frog and they grow to roughly 18mm in size 🙄... One of South Africa's most threatened lowland frog species.
This is an endemic and range restricted amphibian species of the Western Cape that is found in strong association with acidic dark-water humic coastal pools from 10 to 80 m.a.s.l.
At the moment this species is still found in 4 sub-populations which, in total, spans an area no bigger than 10 square kilometers.
They breed during winter when the rains have adequately filled up their breeding pools, and when these pools dry out during summer the frogs bury themselves in the mud, until the next rainy season.
Urban and rural development poses a real threat to this species, as does human induced changes in the water table that can lead to either drainage or flooding of their breeding sites.
Invasive alien vegetation might pose the biggest threat, since encroachment can have a severe detrimental effect on water quality and could alter the water chemistry of the sparsely scattered remaining pools available to this species in its distribution.
Current conservation action is headed up by CapeNature, with ongoing monitoring and management of wetland habitats taking the lead in conserving this species.
Microbatrachella capensis - Micro Frog, Mikropadda - Western Cape, South Africa.