A Great Team: U.S. and Sierra Leone Scientists Rediscover Rare Frog Species

U.S. scientist, Theodore Papenfuss of the University of California, Berkeley and Sierra Leonean scientist Abdulai Barrie of Njala College, teamed up to find a rare species of frog, the Cardioglossa Aureoli, 41 years after it first appeared to biologists in Sierra Leone. Dr. Papenfuss came to Sierra Leone under the auspices of the Joint Genome Institute established in 1997 as part of the Human Genome Project. While on a frog survey at the Forest Reserve Compound at River No 2, on Saturday, July 10, Mr. Barrie heard an unusual frog call and spotted a male Cardioglossa aureoli on a rock wall at the compound.

Arnie Schiotz, a Danish biologist, who was visiting Fourah Bay College, discovered the new species, no larger than a 100 Leone coin, in 1963. While staying at the residence of the Head of Zoology Department he had heard frogs calling from the rock wall in the garden; after he caught them, he determined that they were a new species. Named after Mount Aureol, the Cardioglossa aureoli is a close relative of another species of Cardioglossa that lives in Cameroon. The little frog then disappeared from view for decades.

This rediscovery now proves that Cardioglossa aureoli frog is not extinct as was previously thought. This indigenous frog species is in need of protection and it is important to locate additional places where it could be found. Currently it is common to the Freetown Peninsula and limited to the surrounding forest areas.