Chirping in dark misty forest leads to ‘secretive’ creature. It’s a new species
Walking through a dark misty forest in Madagascar, a team of scientists followed a “distinct” chirping sound to its “secretive” source. The calling creature had “large” hands and “long” legs.
It turned out to be a new species.
A team of researchers visited several sites in southeastern Madagascar between 2005 and 2023 as part of ongoing efforts to document the country’s biodiversity, according to a study published June 16 in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa.
During their 2005 visit to a national park, the team found a vaguely unfamiliar-looking frog hiding in a leaf, the study said. Fairly quickly, researchers suspected the “small” frog was an undescribed species, but they didn’t have enough data to know for sure.
Finding more specimens proved difficult — so difficult that it took almost 20 years.
The team eventually tracked down a second similar-looking frog in 2013 at a different national park and a third frog in 2023 at yet another site, the study said. Researchers finally had enough data to confirm their initial assessment. They’d discovered a new species: Guibemantis sioka.
Guibemantis sioka frogs measure less than 2 inches in length, the study said. They have “slender” limbs, “long” legs and “large” hands.
Photos show the coloring of the new species. One fully grown frog had a “dark brown” body with a “yellow-beige” stripe down its back, researchers said. Another juvenile frog had a reddish hue. Both had wavy markings on their sides.
Guibemantis sioka frogs are “rare and secretive” tree-dwellers, the study said. One frog was “found calling late in the night during a light rain” while perched over 6 feet up in a tree near a temporary pool of water. Another frog was found “two hours after dusk on a very misty night.”
Researchers said they named the new species after the Malagasy word for “chirp” because of “the distinct call” the frogs make, which sound like “a bird chirping or emitting trills.”
So far, Guibemantis sioka frogs have “only been found at high elevation sites” in southeastern Madagascar, an island off the eastern coast of Africa.
The new species was identified by its lifestyle, call sound, hand size, body size, coloring and other subtle physical features, the study said. DNA analysis found the new species had at least 6% genetic divergence from other related frog species.
The research team included Carl Hutter, Zo Andriampenomanana, Edmund Basham. Frank Glaw, Matteo Masotti, Shea Lambert and Miguel Vences.
This story was originally published June 17, 2025 at 1:43 PM with the headline "Chirping in dark misty forest leads to ‘secretive’ creature. It’s a new species."
