Background: The Western Ghats are a chain of mountains running from Bombay to the southern tip of India. They are home to some of the most diverse frog communities on Earth. Over 90% of the species there are found nowhere else, and there is evidence that individual hilltops harbour unique species.

The Problem: It is likely that most frogs of the Western Ghats remain unknown to science. The taxonomy of amphibians in India is a neglected subject and as a result identifying species is a difficult task. The forests of the Western Ghats have been largely cleared, leaving isolated fragments of habitat and it seems inevitable that highly localised species will become extinct without ever being discovered. At present surveys of amphibians communities are rarely carried out, and often suffer from taxonomic uncertainities and methodological flaws which make comparisons of quantititve data between communities impossible.

Rhacophorus lateralis, rediscovered in the Western Ghats after 120 years

Our Solution: Develop methods for surveying large and complex amphibian populations in an easily repeatable manner. Make amphibians easy to identify by producing guides to the frogs of the area that include pictures of animals at all stages in life, together with samples of their advertisement calls. Use these media to publicise the fact that amphibians in the area are of world-wide importance.