Squeakers and Cricket Frogs: Arthroleptidae

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) lists two species, the cave squeaker and the Nsoung long-fingered frog, as being Critically Endangered. Critically Endangered species face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. Both the cave squeaker and the Nsoung long-fingered frog live in very small areas. In the case of the cave squeaker, all of the individuals appear to live in just one area in the mountains of eastern Zimbabwe. Scientists have only seen this frog once, when it was first discovered in 1962 in a grassy field and nearby caves on the mountain. This spot on the mountain is part of a national park. Nsoung long-fingered frogs are scattered over several spots in western Cameroon, all of which are high on the south side of a mountain. People have begun cutting down the nearby forests to make way for farmland and other uses. If the frog's tiny habitat is also lost, the frog will be in danger of extinction.

The IUCN lists nine other species as Endangered and facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild. All of the nine species are found only in small areas on mountains. One species lives in Guinea, one in Malawi, one in Tanzania, one in Sierre Leone, three in Cameroon and Nigeria, and two in just Cameroon. In many cases, these species are split up into small groups, each of which lives far away from the others. When a species is separated like this, scientists term it fragmented. In other words, the species is divided into small pieces, or fragments. This is usually not healthy for a species, because the males and females have no chance to mate with males and females from other groups. After many generations of breeding within the same group, some of the young may begin to have birth defects that can be fatal. This problem is seen in other types of animals too. Conservationists also are concerned because the endangered frogs all live in habitats that are being threatened by logging, clearing of the land for farming, or other human activities.

The IUCN considers two more species to be Vulnerable and facing a high risk of extinction in the wild; and three to be Near Threatened, which means they are at risk of becoming threatened with extinction in the future. In addition, it names sixteen as Data Deficient, which means that too little information is available to make a judgment about the threat of extinction. Often, this Data Deficient category is used for species that scientists have heard about, but have not yet studied in any detail. In the case of the squeakers and cricket frogs, more than one-fifth of the 77 species in this family fall under the Data Deficient category.