Project Ashoka

A Long-term Ecological Research and Monitoring initiative by Gubbi Labs.

Bisle Frog Watch

Background:

Bisle frog Watch is an annual citizen science initiative started in 2012 by Gubbi Labs, Kudremukh Wildlife Foundation and the Bisle Kappe Team to raise awareness about frogs. It is held every monsoon in Bisle, in the Western Ghats which is a biodiversity hotspot and attracts students, researchers, nature enthusiasts and photographers from all across the country. The intention of the workshop is to spread awareness about amphibians and teach 20-30 participants about amphibian identification, acoustics and behaviour, and in the process document the amphibian diversity found in this region. The first seven editions of the Frog Watch have recorded 36 amphibian species from here, many of which are endemic to the region. The workshops have led to first records of several species in this region, and until now, as an outcome of our citizen science activities, at least 2 new species of frogs have been discovered by participants of our Frog Watch program from the Western Ghats.[1][2]

Data collection:

This document provides a checklist of species of amphibians observed each year during the Bisle Frog Watch. All species which were either seen or heard by members of the group during the duration of the 3-day workshops, were recorded and collated.

Data sharing:

With regard to distribution of the data, we have adopted to distribute data to promote public participation, community level conservation and to develop policy changes under the Creative Commons-Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

The data can be accessed here: Google Drive Link.

Media coverage of Bisle Frog Watch:

Here are some mentions of the Bisle Kappe Team and its activities in recent years:

References:

  1. Priti, H., Naik, C.R., Seshadri, K.S., Singal, R., Vidisha, M.K., Ravikanth, G., and Gururaja, K.V., 2016. A new species of Euphlyctis (Amphibia, Anura, Dicroglossidae) from the West Coastal Plains of India, Asian Herpetological Research 7(4): 229-241. doi:10.16373/j.cnki.ahr.160020
  2. Seshadri, K.S., R. Singal, H. Priti, G. Ravikanth, M.K. Vidisha, S. Saurabh, M. Pratik and K.V. Gururaja. 2016. Microhyla laterite sp. nov., A New Species of Microhyla Tschudi, 1838 (Amphibia: Anura: Microhylidae) from a Laterite Rock Formation in South West India. PLoS ONE 11(3): e1049727. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149727