Smooth-skinned Ditch FrogLeptodactylus validus

Leptodactylus validus
Tobago

The Smooth-skinned Ditch Frog (Leptodactylus validus) is a common frog of the grasslands and forest edges of northern South America.  It is a common frog over much of its range and is often found living commensally with man.  The first group of these that I found were living in a drainage overflow that contained a few inches of water.  There were quite a few individuals living in this square drainage tank.  They were breeding and calling from the few inches of water in this tank day and night.   Although I heard and recorded them calling here on multiple occasions, I was never able to see a calling male.  I believe, like many Leptodactylus species, they were calling from beneath the mass of tangled bamboo leaves in the tank.

Although frogs are not always associated with being good "parents", many species do show some level of parental care.  Females of several Leptodactylus species have been shown to stay with their eggs and tadpoles and them.   They have been shown to "attack" potential predators that approach their clutch and try to lead the tadpoles around to various areas within their pond (or ditch in this case).  I believe I observed this in the frogs in this concreted ditch as tadpoles tended to cluster around females that were sitting still in the water.   The female was never seen far from her cluster of babies.
There are some wonderful videos showing the nature of this parental behavior in L. insularum on this website.

Leptodactylus validus female "tending" tadpoles
Tobago

I was able to find this species calling in more "natural" surroundings of flooded grassy fields as well as from grassy ditches at the edges of a residential area of Bon Accord in Tobago.

The call of this species is a sharp whistled "pip" or "whip".  Here are a couple of individuals calling from a grassy ditch in Bon Accord, Tobago -

Here's a look at the spectrographs of a couple of those calls.  You can see how although the call is brief, it is as ascending call with an almost "percussive" consonant on the end.

This species was often heard calling during the day.    We came across a large chorus calling from this flooded grassy area right at the junction of the main road and a busy footpath leading down to a popular tourist beach. Even though it was broad daylight and quite a few people were about, these frogs were chorusing away (hidden beneath the vegetation). 

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© Chris Harrison 2019