Black Mountain boulder frog

Black Mountain boulder frog
Female
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Microhylidae
Genus:	Cophixalus
Species:	C. saxatilis
Binomial name
Cophixalus saxatilis Zweifel & Parker, 1977

The Black Mountain boulder frog (Cophixalus saxatilis), also known as the rock haunting frog or the Black Mountain rainforest frog, is a species of frog in the family Microhylidae.

It is endemic to Australia, and its populations are now restricted to the Kalkajaka National Park, Australia.^[2]

Its original habitats were subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, rocky areas, and caves, now severely reduced to the "Black Mountains" 25 km (16 mi) south-west of Cooktown, Queensland.^[2]

The Queensland Environmental Protection Agency has described and summarized some of the distinctive features of this frog as follows:^[2]

The vulnerable Black Mountain boulderfrog or rock haunting frog (Cophixalus saxatilis) is one of the largest (about the size of a walnut) of Australia's microhylids — a group of frogs normally confined to the leaf litter of tropical rainforests.

This large-eyed frog lays its eggs on land rather than in water. An adult tends to the eggs and young, which hatch as fully formed froglets. They have no tadpole stage.

The smaller mottled brown male are more easily heard than seen. Their call is a sharp tapping noise.

They have acquired an almost crab-like ability to scuttle on the granite boulders, although they can still disappear in a series of leaps when alarmed. At night these frogs emerge to forage on the boulders of the mountain and in and about the scattered figs and fringing monsoon forest.

• Kalkajaka National Park

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