Common Name: Wallace Flying Frog, Abah River Flying Frog
Scientific Name: Rhacophorus nigropalmatus
Family: Rhacophoridae – Asian Tree Frog family
Location: Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand
Size: 3.5 – 3.9 inches (90 – 100 mm)
The Wallace Flying frog is named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who also described the species. The Wallace’s Flying Frog doesn’t really fly (sorry!), it more glides through the air. They live high up in the canopy of the rain forests. To achieve the feat of flight, the frog fans out it’s highly webbed hands and floats down from one tree to the next or the ground – even more than 50 feet at a time. They are sometimes called Parachute Frogs which more accurately describes what they do. There are other flying frog species, but the Wallace’s Flying Frog is one of the larger species.
For reproduction, the females form a foam nest to protect the fertilized eggs. The nest is made above a body of water in a tree or bush. Once the eggs hatch, the tadpoles fall into the water where they will complete their metamorphosis.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assess the Wallace Flying Frog as Least Concern for Extinction. The frog has a wide range and a presumed large population. Deforestation of the rain forests that the frogs call home could lead to local population declines but overall, the frogs are in good shape.