16. 12. 11. - 15:19

Waving frogs at Schönbrunn Zoo

By Rebecca Musgrave

The newest tadpole arrivals at Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna may be small but they have created a huge stir. The zoo has become the first in the world to breed from the waving frog, so-named as it communicates with other frogs by waving.

Since 2007 two types of waving frog have been kept in a frog container in the rainforest house at the zoo in Vienna, Austria. The zoo has been working together with the University of Vienna and the University of Brunei Darussalam in Borneo where the frog species originates from. The research organisations have been studying the behaviour and visual communication of the frogs.

As a result of the noisy environment in which the species of frog lives in Borneo, they communicate simply by waving. The frogs are used to living near waterfalls and fast flowing rivers. To make themselves known they do not just call out but they wave their hind legs in the air. In order to ensure that they have been noticed they even have coloured skin between their toes which appears when they wave.

According to Director Dagmar Schratter, almost nothing is known about the amphibians' breeding habits. "We had already tried everything:  Rain, fog, different temperatures and every possible change in layout of the terrarium," he said. The researchers are now overjoyed to have successfully bred from the creatures and to have the tadpoles in the zoo. "We have broken new ground and step by step fumbled along until we found our way," he continued.