The Observation of Frog Species at State University of Malang as a Preliminary Effort on Frog Conservation

Abstract

Frog is an amphibian which is widely spread around the world. Indonesia houses 450 species which represent 11% of frog species in the world. In Java Island alone, there live 42 species of frogs and toads. Frogs can be used as an environment indicator in that the presence of frog in a particular place indicates that the place stays natural and unpolluted. The 1st Campus of State University of Malang, which is located in the heart of Malang District, has been developing rapidly currently. Thus, it requires the construction of new various facilities to support its huge activities. Extensive construction can be destructive even damaging to the habitat of frog, which potentially threats the frog’s life, if it does not take the environmental impact into careful consideration. This study is aimed to identify the species of frog which survives at State University of Malang with, particularly the frog species found in 1995. Species identification was conducted by observing the morphological character. This study found that there were four species with three species remained survived in 1995; those were Duttaphrynus melanostictus, Polypedates leucomystax, and Kaloula baleta; and one new species called Rana chalconota. This study also revealed that there were four species which were extinct; those were Fejervarya cancrivora, Fejervarya limnocharis, Ingerophrynus biporcatus, and Occidoziga lima. This situation shows the decreasing amount of species from 7 to 4 within the last 17 years. This result indicates that there is a serious environmental degradation which causes the losing of frog habitats. Further research is needed to study the ecological condition changing in order to save the frog species.

Keywords

• conservation
• frog observation
• habitat dectruction