On the Strange Case of the Golden-Backed Frog With a Bonnet Mushroom Growing From Its Flank

 

Grenouille aux champignon

 

 

As if the rise of irradiated black frogs in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone wasn't enough to think about, we now discover that in the lush foothills of India's Western Ghats a live golden-backed frog has been found with a tiny bonnet mushroom sprouting from above its hind leg - which is not something you see every day ...

In fact, it's never been seen before - in India or anywhere else - and so scientists are naturally a bit puzzled by this, whilst those with a special interest in amphibians are particularly concerned, as this may not be a good development (for the frogs). 

 

Whilst it's true that even people can develop fungal infections - athlete's foot, for example - mushrooms usually grow on decaying plant matter and rotten wood, not live animal tissue; skin is a nutrient poor surface and not ideal for living upon as a rule. So perhaps this is just a very rare (rather freaky) occurrence. 

 

As the frog seen in the photo above wasn't captured, researchers are uncertain what's going on; whether there's something uniquely different about its skin, or whether the mushroom is harmful or benign, for example. But, as I've said, herpetologists are worried by this development, as frogs and hundreds of other amphibian species across the world are already under threat from another parasitic fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis).

 

Infections by what is commonly called the chytrid fungus - which ruin the salt/water balance of the skin and eventually cause heart failure - have resulted in a steady decline of amphibian populations globally, and this, in my view, is a terribly sad fact. For, like my mother, I love little gem-like frogs and think everyone should have to build and maintain a pond in their back garden by law.