Invasive Hong Kong whipping frogs are displacing Taiwan’s indigenous Polypedates braueri from their habitats, the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute said on Tuesday, citing internal studies.
Hong Kong whipping frogs, or Polypedates megacephalus, are one of the invasive anuran species introduced to Taiwan in the past two decades and are the most dangerous of the species to indigenous frog life, the institute said in a news release.
Other known invasive anuran species in Taiwan are American bullfrogs, banded bullfrogs, crab-eating frogs, cane toads and greenhouse frogs, with all but the first being recent additions, it added.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute via CNA
Researchers in 2015, 2019 and last year detected more calls from Hong Kong whipping frogs near New Taipei City’s Feitsui Reservoir (翡翠水庫), implying a decline of native frogs, it said.
The whipping frogs occupy a similar niche as the Polypedates braueri, but are capable of laying thousands of eggs at a time, resulting in numerous offspring that devoured available food sources in the environs, it said.
Citing a study by National Dong Hwa University associate professor of zoology Yang Yi-ju (楊懿如), the institute said the imported frogs have spread to every county-level jurisdiction in Taiwan proper except Taitung.
Taiwanese officials are treating the whipping frogs as an invasive species that must be subject to long-term management, it said.
The spread of invasive frogs into sensitive ecological zones is to be prevented by surveillance and culling of the imported species in conjunction with conservation efforts to boost the number of their indigenous counterparts, the institute said.
Meanwhile, owners of amphibian pets must be educated to understand that they cannot allow them to escape into the wild, it said.
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