Nahaufnahme eines tanzenden Frosches. KARNATAKA; INDIEN: DIESE NIEDLICHEN Frösche sehen aus, als würden sie Yoga üben, während sie sich in allen möglichen lustigen Posen ausstrecken.
Close-up of a dancing frog. KARNATAKA; INDIA: THESE ADORABLE frogs look like they are practising yoga as they stretch out in all kinds of funny poses. While most frogs loudly croak for attention, these suave amphibians are all about the legwork. Known as dancing frogs, they like to live in slow-moving streams and are only found in the Western Ghats in Karnataka, India. At just 2cm long, these tiny frogs are also incredibly shy which makes them a real challenge to photograph. These beautiful images were taken by Nihal Jabin (28) a petrochemical engineer from Kerala, using a Sony A7 iii camera with a Sony 90mm f 2.8 macro lens. He said he is the first person ever to take a full framed close-up image of the frogs and had to gain their trust over many arduous weeks. ?After a one-month struggle, the distance between my camera lens and these tiny creatures became less day by day, ? he said. ?By that time, they were not hiding in the crevices, maybe because they slowly started to recognise me and knew that I was not a problematic person. ?It was a dream come true moment when they sat in front of my camera lens and started to call along with foot flagging behaviour.? Nihal said that, by the end of the month, one frog was even bold enough to hop into his hand. ?One day, when I was shooting a video by sitting in the stream, a male frog jumped into my hand and made a single foot-flagging, ? he said. Nihal?s one-of-a-kind photographs have been deeply appreciated by amphibian researchers who believe the unusual ?dancing? behaviour is how the frogs counter the problem of their voices not being heard over the sound of waterfalls. ?Male dancing frogs rhythmically stretch their hind legs, displaying their webbed toes, ? Nihal said. ?They use this form of visual signalling to grab the attention of potential mates and to ward off local rivals.? ENDS mediadrumimages / Nihal Jabin
