It may be no bigger than a fingertip, but it appears to carry the cosmos on its back. Its shiny black skin is dotted with pale blue speckles, resembling a clear night sky studded with stars. There are also dashes of orange patterns, reminiscent of luminous supernova explosions.
Galaxy frogs (Melanobatrachus indicus) are one of the rarest and most dazzling amphibians in the world that live exclusively under rotten logs in Kerala’s Western Ghats. However, the elusive species is now disappearing.
According to the study, a group of seven galaxy frogs vanished, all likely to be dead, after multiple photographers descended on their habitat, causing disturbances and behavioural changes that could have disrupted their feeding and breeding success.
The report, titled ‘Unethical wildlife photography imperils the Western Ghats endemic galaxy frog, Melanobatrachus indicus Beddome, 1878’, was published in the journal Herpetology Notes on December 17, 2025. The study was authored by K P Rajkumar, Benjamin Tapley, Jyoti Das and Sandeep Das — all of them fellows at the Zoological Society of London — and P S Easa, the chairperson of Thrissur-based Aranyakam Nature Foundation, a non-government organisation working for biodiversity conservation.
Although galaxy frogs were first discovered in 1878, not much is known about them since they are difficult to find. Measuring between 2 cm and 3.5 cm, these frogs do not produce sounds. Scientists believe they use their spots to communicate, making existing data about their population and breeding behaviour deficient.
The frogs are already listed as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Among major threats to these creatures are the conversion of forest areas to farm land, firewood collection and landslides. However, in recent years, photo tourism has emerged as a new danger to galaxy frogs, especially after they were designated as the flagship species of Kerala’s Mathikettan Shola National Park in 2021.
The case of missing galaxy frogs
In March 2020, Rajkumar, the lead author of the latest report, and his team discovered seven galaxy frogs in a forest patch in the Western Ghats. The researchers had been visiting the area as part of a programme to monitor these amphibians since 2019, with approval from the Kerala forests department.
The Covid-19 pandemic broke out soon after their discovery. Even as the researchers could not return to the area due to the pandemic, hordes of photographers landed at the site between June 2020 and April 2021. “The photographers were familiar with the microhabitat of the species from publications and local trackers, and overturned many logs whilst searching for the species,” the study said.
When Rajkumar and his team finally revisited the spot in August 2021, the logs under which the frogs had been discovered earlier had been displaced and the vegetation trampled. The galaxy frogs had vanished.
A local informant told the researchers that photographers often captured the frogs with their bare hands and moved them to moss or other logs for “more picturesque backdrops”. The amphibians were exposed to high-powered camera flashes for nearly four hours per session, according to the study.
The informant told the group that two of these frogs had died during these marathon photography sessions, a claim that Rajkumar and his team could not verify.
The researchers returned to the site in November 2021 and May 2022, but never saw the galaxy frogs again. All of them are presumed dead.
Perils of wildlife photography
According to the paper, when the photographers dislocated the logs in search of the galaxy frogs, they exposed the moss-covered underside to the surroundings. This is likely to have altered the microhabitat underneath the logs, forcing the frogs to never return to the same spot.
Varad Giri, who has been studying frogs since 2000 and is currently with Reliance Foundation, tells The Indian Express, “Galaxy frogs require precise ecological conditions, such as temperature and humidity, to survive. That is because they are cold-blooded animals and are at the mercy of surrounding temperatures. As a result, they are found only in a small patch of forest in the Western Ghats and are not widely distributed. So, any change in their habitat is going to have a negative impact on them.”
For instance, constant human movement around the frogs’ habitat can interfere with their breeding process, as the amphibians typically mate by calling each other.
Handling frogs without gloves and exposing them to the heat of a flash, as it happened in this case, is also dangerous for the animal. Giri says, “Frogs use their skin for respiration. They keep their skin moist by secreting a slimy secretion called mucus to breathe through the skin. If their skin becomes dry (which can happen due to heat transfer while handling frogs or using flash to photograph them), their activity will be hampered, as they will not be able to breathe comfortably.”
Capturing frogs with bare hands can also pose a risk of pathogen transfer from humans to amphibians, exposing them to lethal diseases.
Need for regulation
The study highlighted the need to establish ethical standards in both nature and conservation photography to reduce the negative impact on wildlife and nature. It said, “These standards should include restricting capture, handling and chasing animals, minimising the use of high-intensity lights and to use diffusers, intentionally intervening in the natural behaviour of animals, and avoiding disturbance to microhabitat.”
The study also suggested that forest departments across the country could collaborate with tourism departments to train tour operators and guides who engage with nature and wildlife photographers.
Giri, on the other hand, said that it would be best to leave rare species such as galaxy frogs alone. “If someone loves nature, they should respect it. Just for clicks, they should not disturb the animal to the extent that it creates problems,” he says.
A galaxy frog (Melanobatrachus indicus). (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) 
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