Otton frog
Babina subaspera
The Otton frog (Babina subaspera) is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It is endemic to the islands of Amami Ōshima and Kakeromajima in the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, freshwater marshes, and intermittent freshwater marshes. Once considered a delicacy as a source of food, it is now threatened by habitat loss through deforestation, and predation by introduced mongooses. Otton Frogs have a lifespan of approximately 7 years which is significantly different to common frog species' life span of 10 -12 years. Due to the isolated island ecosystem, many factors play into the endangerment and the shorter lifespan of the species.
It is one of only two species (the other being Babina holsti) to possess a "pseudothumb" on the forelimbs.
From the article Otton frog on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
What it does
This rare frog uses its switch-blade claws to fight and in mating. Although both sexes have claws, apparently only the males use them, probably to anchor the female to the male during mating. During fighting, two male Otton frogs wrestle each other until in an embrace. They then impale their opponent on their retractable spikes.
== References ==
Wikipedia: “Behaviour”
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Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 65080.