Rain frogs, belonging to the Brevicipitidae family, are a group of small, round-bodied frogs with short limbs. Most rain frogs are native to sub-Saharan Africa, especially regions like South Africa and Namibia. Social media has made rain frogs something of a viral sensation.
If you're out during a desert rainstorm and hear something that sounds like a squeaky toy, don't panic. Perhaps you already know that rain frogs make silly noises. Well, scientists recently described a new species of rain frog, and it too makes a weird noise.
Frogs meow, bark and scream
The Boston Rain Frog
The Boston rain frog (Breviceps batrachophiliorum) is native to Boston, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
“A thunderstorm with heavy rains had just passed-perfect for Rain Frog activity. We pulled over on the side of the road after hearing Rain Frogs calling. We didn’t notice the call being any different to the one on the frog app, at the time, we were just focused on finding one of the calling frogs. Rain Frogs are not easy to find. Eventually, we found one, however, it was not the Bilbo’s Rain Frog we were after. The friends took recordings and photos of the grumpy-looking rain frog and sent them to experts. The experts, including Les Minter and Louis Du Preez, ended up publishing a paper that identifies B.
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If you don’t already love this story, just wait until you hear this rare rain frog croak. Header image from du Preez, L., Netherlands, E., & Minter, L. (2025). A new Rain Frog (Anura: Brevicipitidae; Breviceps) from the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, South Africa. African Journal of Herpetology, 1-22.
The Screaming Cape Rain Frog
A video of a screaming cape rain frog encountered near Cape Town, South Africa, is drawing amusement as it makes its way around the Internet-but experts say the footage clearly shows a frog in distress.
Simon Van Nierop, who captured the video, was taking a walk with his children and dogs in the Tokai Forest in Table Mountain National Park when they heard high-pitched screaming. They traced it to a yellow and black, puffed up cape rain frog, a species endemic to South Africa's Western Cape and listed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List.
The footage Van Nierop took is billed as "hilarious," but not everyone agrees that it's funny. “I find it sad, not hilarious,” says Jill Goldman, a private animal behavior therapist. “I think people are drawn to videos that look funny when they don’t really understand why the animal is doing what [it's] doing.”
Channing, who has studied frogs in the wild for years, says he's certain the frog was making the noise and puffing up its body to scare away potential threats.
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Van Nierop, who owns a business that rents flooring to events around Cape Town, says the frog was already screaming when he and his family found it, adding that he restrained his own dogs as well as other dogs along the trail to protect the frog.
According to Carrie Freeman, a communications professor at Georgia State University who co-created animalsandmedia.org, videos and photos of unusual animals can help efforts to protect the animal by drawing attention to an otherwise unknown species. “If you have an animal protection mission, you can use this for your cause,” she says. On the other hand, “if people just see it and say that it’s cute, it could be counterproductive.”
For instance, though all nine species of slow loris are threatened with extinction in large part because of the illegal pet trade, Internet videos showing them being tickled or fed rice balls have fueled their demand as pets.
The Desert Rain Frog
The desert rain frog, web-footed rain frog, or Boulenger's short-headed frog (Breviceps macrops) is a species of frog in the family Brevicipitidae. The desert rain frog is a plump species with bulging eyes, a short snout, short limbs, spade-like feet, and webbed toes. On the underside, it has a transparent area of skin through which its internal organs can be seen. It can be between 4 and 6 centimetres (1.6 and 2.4 in) long.
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Unlike most other species of frogs, it develops directly from the egg into adults without passing through the tadpole stage. It has a stout body with small legs, which makes it unable to hop or leap, so it walks around on the sand. Unusually for a frog, it does not require water in its habitat to survive, but it does not have any apparent adaptation to prevent water loss. Its eyes are comparatively large and bulging.
The desert rain frog is mostly found on a small strip of land about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) wide along the coast of Namibia and South Africa below the Congo basin. The small area of sand dunes often gets a lot of fog, which supplies moisture in an otherwise arid and dry region.
The habitat of desert rain frogs is limited to a narrow strip of land along the western coast of southern Africa, specifically in South Africa and Namibia. This area is characterized by sandy shores and sand dunes, and it is one of the few places in the world where these frogs can be found. The climate in this region is dry and arid, with very little rainfall, and the frogs are adapted to living in these conditions. They are able to survive in areas with very little water by burrowing underground and waiting out dry periods, and they are also able to absorb water through their skin.
The desert rain frog's habitat is characterized by xerophytic vegetation, which is adapted to living in dry environments, and in the spring, the area blooms with a variety of flowering plants. During the breeding season, which occurs between June and October, male desert rain frogs emerge from their burrows at night and call out to females using a distinctive squeaking sound.
When a female hears a male's call and is interested in mating, she will approach him and the two will mate underground. After mating, the female will lay a clutch of eggs, which can range in size from 12 to 40 eggs. Desert rain frogs are terrestrial breeders meaning that the eggs develop in a burrow and one of the adult frogs remains in the area of the nest. The eggs hatch into froglets, which do not go through a free-living tadpole stage like many other frog species.
The desert rain frog is nocturnal, spending the day in a burrow which is dug to a depth of 10 to 20 centimetres (3.9 to 7.9 in) where the sand is moist. It emerges on both foggy and clear nights and wanders about over the surface of the dunes. Its footprints are distinctive and are often found around patches of dung where it is presumed to feed on moths, beetles, and insect larvae. It is also known to eat beetles and ants.
It digs its way into the sand in the morning and its presence in a locality can be deduced from the little pile of loose sand dislodged by its burrowing activities. Breeding is by direct development of eggs laid in its burrow, there is no aquatic tadpole stage. It produces a high-pitched squeaking sound when threatened.
The frog's total habitat range is smaller than 2,000 square kilometres (770 sq mi) and is fragmented. The number of individual frogs was previously decreasing but it is now unknown whether the population is decreasing or not. It is threatened by habitat loss caused by opencast diamond mining and road construction, as well as increased human settlement. Fortunately, opencast diamond mining has recently ceased in south Africa. Attempts to restore the frogs' habitat by mining companies could mean that the frog is no longer threatened.
The Black Rain Frog
The black rain frog is so named due to its almost completely black colouration, but is also called the ‘plain rain frog’, ‘African rain frog’, or ‘Tsitiskamma rain frog’. As the name suggests, this animal is mostly active during the rainy season, remaining in underground burrows during drier periods.
These amphibians are extremely rounded in body shape, with shorts legs and a downward facing mouth, giving the impression the frog is constantly grumpy. They are commonly found at altitudes much higher than 1,000m and tolerate relatively cold and wet seasons as well as surviving through much warmer, drier conditions.
Their preferred habitat is amongst the fynbos, a unique type of heathland found only in this part of the world. As black rain frogs are a burrowing species, they tend to prefer areas with sandy soil, which is easier to dig into.
Spending most of their time underground, this provides safety from predators as well as good access to moisture and possible prey. As with most frog species, the black rain frog mainly feeds on insects, especially termites, ants, flies and crickets. They will also eat insect larvae that they have dug out of the soil as well as spiders, moths and other invertebrates they encounter.
Black rain frogs are almost entirely nocturnal, spending the daylight hours underground, although they do emerge during the day during breeding season or heavy rains.
The main predators of black rain frogs are snakes and raptors, however there is evidence that bush pigs will also feed on several of these frogs in a single night when the frogs are foraging in large numbers.
Black rain frogs of all sizes can be easy prey due to their lack of speed, however they are able to deter predators in several ways. They can inflate their bodies, increasing their size drastically and the bumps on their skin can appear poisonous to certain predators. If these methods fail, the black rain frog will dig itself into the soil before an attacker has a chance to strike.
Luckily for the black rain frog, most of the unique habitat where they are found is located within protected areas. This is crucial to the survival of the species as they are extremely susceptible to human activity such as construction and mining.
As with most amphibians, the black rain frog is an integral part of the ecosystem, preventing insect over-population as well as increasing nutrient flow through in the soil through their burrowing activities. The burrows the black rain frog dig also provide shelter to insects and other small animals.
Interesting Black Rain Frog Facts
- Black rain frogs do not have skin covered in wartsThey are covered in small bumps called ‘tubercles’, merely giving them a ‘warty’ appearance.These bumps can appear poisonous to certain predators, although they aren’t! The bumps on their skin keep their skin lubricatedBlack rain frogs rarely drink water, instead they can absorb moisture through their moist skin.
- They can make themselves appear 7 times largerBlack rain frogs can inflate their bodies with air to make themselves look far large than they are usually, to deter approaching predators as a defence mechanism.They also use this unique ability to jam themselves in their burrows, so other animals can’t pull them out of their burrows due to their size.
- Black rain frogs are found in only one, very specific areaThese frogs live only on the mountain slopes in the Southwestern Cape of South Africa.
- They can’t hop away, but they are expert diggersThey are unable to hop due to their body shape, and instead move ponderously by walking on their relatively short legs.However when it comes to digging, these species are experts.Scientists have recorded rain frogs disappearing in front of their eyes due to their ability to dig themselves under the soil in a few seconds.
- They chirp in heavy rain, and breeding seasonDue to their nocturnal nature and location, black rain frogs are rarely seen. However during rains or the breeding they produce high pitched chirps, with the sound filling the air when they call in large numbers.During the breeding season, males attempt to attract females to their burrow by calling from inside a well-prepared, clean underground tunnel. As with most frogs, the black rain frog is a solitary animal, only coming together during the breeding season.They do however tolerate living in close proximity to one another and where prey is abundant, several individuals may be found living in adjacent burrows.
- Females stick males to their backs during matingsDue to their rounded body shape, mating is challenging and therefore rain frogs have evolved an ingenious method to make sure a male remains on the females back during mating.Females secrete a sticky substance that glues the male to their back and this ensures that when she lays her eggs, the male is in position to fertilise the released eggs.Females lay around 40 eggs in a depression within the burrow and after the eggs are laid, males take over the responsibility of protecting them.
- Young black rain frogs are called ‘froglets’Unlike aquatic species of frog, black rain frog eggs do not hatch into tadpoles. Males are much smaller than femalesAs with many frog species, males can sometimes measure half the size of females.
- Some people belive that these frogs bring or stop the rainsAs they call just before the rainy season, some tribes thought that the frogs determined the forthcoming weather. The habitat type in which the live is a sanctuary to many other animals and plantsThe protected fynbos habitat is also home to species of tortoise, mice, sunbirds and butterflies, to name a few.
