Photos by Md. Zulkifli

THE AMPHIBIANS OF BORNEO
Of the approximately 180 species now known from Borneo, 130 (or nearly three-quarters) are endemic to the island. Adding to the frog fauna are several species that are human commensals, and suspected to have arrived in the past century, mostly inadvertently with plants and other agricultural products, and one is an escapee from frog farms.

The most recent assessment of the world’s amphibians paints a bleak picture for the Bornean amphibian fauna. Of those whose conservation status has been assessed, 83 have been classified as threatened, representing nearly half the known amphibian fauna of the island. These figures are, of course, conservative estimates. These indicate insufficiency in current knowledge of Bornean frogs, and a need for further research on a diverse series of disciplines, from taxonomy and systematics, to ecology, ethology, and distribution.

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