Green-blooded, turquoise-boned species of frog discovered

Fauna & Flora has discovered a ‘new-to-science’ species of frog with green blood and turquoise-coloured bones in Cambodia’s remote Cardamom Mountains.

The Samkos bush frog’s strange-coloured bones and blood are caused by the pigment biliverdin, a waste product usually processed in the liver. In this species, the green biliverdin is passed back into the blood and is visible through the frog’s thin, translucent skin, making it even better camouflaged and possibly even causing it to taste unpalatable to predators.

The new frog is just one of four new frog species discovered by Fauna & Flora in Cambodia, including the Cardamom bush frog, Smith’s frog, and the Aural horned frog. These species have only ever been seen in the peaks of the Cardamom Mountains. In fact, since beginning work in Cambodia in 2000, Fauna & Flora has brought to light more than 40 species that had not been recorded in Cambodia before.

Fauna & Flora consultant naturalist and photographer Jeremy Holden discovered the Samkos bush frog.

Faua & Flora’s Senior Conservation Biologist, Jenny Daltry, was the first scientist to discover Smith’s frog.

Fauna & Flora has also published Cambodia’s first field guide to amphibians in October. “A Field Guide to the Amphibians of Cambodia” contains stunning photographs of each species and represents the culmination of eight years of field research by Jeremy Holden and Cambodian herpetologist Neang Thy, who has worked with Fauna & Flora since 2004. Its publication is particularly timely, given the serious threats facing amphibians around the world which led to 2008 being named the “Year of the Frog”.