2008 MIRZA D. KUSRINI M. I. LUBIS B. DARMAWAN [The Tree Frog of Chevron Geothermal Concession, Mount Halimun­Salak National Park Indonesia] REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE WILDLIFE TRUST­PEKA FOUNDATION Citation: Kusrini MD, Lubis MI, Darmawan B. 2008. The Tree Frog of Chevron Geothermal Concession, Mount Hakimun-Salak National Park - Indonesia. Technical report submitted to the Wildlife Truts – Peka Foundation PHOTO CREDITS Front cover: (top left) The Javanese tree frog Rhacophorus javanus, (top right) a female Philautus vittiger guarding its eggs, (bottom) the green flying frog Rhacophorus reinwardtii M. Irfansyah Lubis: Cover pictures, Fig2-5, fig2,7 to 2-11, Fig 3-1 top, Fig.3-4, Fig 3-4, Fig 3-7, Fig 3-8, Fig 3-0. (Stage 1, 16-18, 20, 21, 25, 42, 44, adult), Fig.3-11 and Fig 3-12 , Fig 3-13, Fig 3-15, Fig 3-16 B. Darmawan: Fig3-2, Fig.3-10. (Stage 13-15, 37,38,41,43,45,46) K3AR-IPB:Fig. 3-1 below Content Acknowledgments v Executive Summary v Chapter 1. Introduction 1 Chapter 2. The tree frog of CGI Concession 4 Introduction 4 Methods 4 Results 4 Species Review 10 Discussions 13 Literature cited 15 Chapter 3. Breeding ecology of Pgilautus vittiger (Anura:Rhacophoridae) from 17 CGI – Mount Halimun Salak National Park, West Java, Indonesia Introduction 17 Methods 18 Animal descriptions 18 Survey & Breeding Ecology 19 Results 21 I. Habitat 21 II. Breeding Ecology 23 2.1 Breeding Season 23 2.2 Eggs 24 2.3 Embryonic Development 24 2.4 Descriptions of tadpole 27 2.5 Breeding Behavior 29 2.6 Advertisement Calls 29 2.7 Parental Care 31 Discussions 31 Literature cited 33 Appendix 36 Chapter 4. Conclusions and Recommendations 38 i List of Figures Fig 1-1 Mean monthly rainfall (mm) of Parakan Salak weather station, based from 2 2005 to 2007 data Fig 1-2 Map of survey area at Chevron Geothermal Concession-Mount Halimun-Salak 3 National Park Fig 2-1 Tree Frog Distribution Map in Chevron Geothermal Indonesia, Mount Halimun- 6 Salak National Park Fig 2-2 (a) Undisturbed forest (near awi 10), (b) Disturbed forest (near Powerplant 7 123) Fig 2-3 (a) Terrestrial habitat near awi 14, (b) terrestrial habitat near awi 4 8 Fig 2-4 Percentage of mature Tree Frog found in Terrestrial habitat in CGI Concession 8 (N = 46 frogs) Fig 2-5 (a) Natural pond near awi 4 and (b) Semi natural pond near awi 7 9 Fig 2-6 Percentage of Tree Frog in Pond habitat in CGI Concession (N= 104 frogs) 9 Fig 2-7 Rhacophorus reinwardtii 10 Fig 2-8 Rhacophorus javanus 11 Fig 2-9 Philautus aurifasciatus 11 Fig 2-10 Philautus vittiger 12 Fig 2-11 Polypedates leucomystax 12 Fig 2-12 Polypedates otilophus 13 Fig 2-12 The distribution of tree frog in three types of habitat at Chevron Geothermal 14 Indonesia Concession Area Fig 3-1 A variety of Philautus vittiger coloring. Picture below shows the underside (left) 18 and distinct shape of disc, webbed toes, tympanum (right) Fig 3-2 (a) plastic box for tadpoles rearing and (b) a close up view of tadpoles inside 20 the box Fig 3-3 Body morphology of a tadpole (based from Dodd,Jr 2004) 20 Fig 3-4 The habitat of Philautus vittiger at CGI concession (a) Natural pond, (b) Semi 21 natural pond and (c) artificial pond Fig 3-5 A male Philautus vittiger perching under a leaf (a) and a coiled old leaf of Musa 22 acuminate (b) with a clutch of eggs inside (c) Fig 3-6 Number of Egg clutches observed at CGI ponds from April to September 2008 23 Fig 3-7 A female Philautus vittiger with visible ripe ova (a) and unripe ova in her 23 stomach (b) Fig. 3-8 Eggs started to hatch 24 Fig. 3-9 Number of Philautus vittiger embryo survived as larvae from lab experiment 25 ii Fig 3-10 Development of newly fertilized eggs of Philautus vittiger into a fully 26 metamorphose frog. Fig 3-11 The characteristic of Philautus vittiger tadpole 27 Fig 3-12 Labial teeth of Philautus vittiger tadpole 28 Fig 3-13 Breeding sequence of Philautus vittiger. Fig. 3-14a was taken in the natural habitat while the other figures showed mating sequence inside field terrarium. Non calling male have darker coloring than the other frogs. Figure 3-13.f also 30 shows the other female (non-breeding – color pale cream) resting in the same leaf Fig 3-14 (a) An oscilogram of the entire section showing one call group, (b) an oscillogram of the call section showing a single pulsed call from the call group in green bracket in (a), (c) Spectrogram of the pulsed call shown in (b), (d) 30 Power spectrum generated over the peak of the call shown in (b). Un- vouchered male. Record was taken 31 May 2008 at pond-5 at 09.34pm. Air temperature 20oC Fig 3-15 Two different females Philautus vittiger from pond-1 in 28 May 2008 guarding its eggs (a) a female sitting on top of its eggs and (b) a different female wiping 31 her hind feet on top of its eggs Fig 3-16 Unguarded dead eggs found during survey. (a) A clucth of eggs hanging by a thread where leaf was eaten by caterpillar, (b) eggs attacked by ants, (c & d) two different clucthes attacked by fungus 31 List of Tables Table 2-1 Number of mature individual of each species found in each transect survey 5 Table 2-2 Species found in stream 7 Table 3-1 Various size of P. vittiger from Pengalengan (Iskandar 1998), Mount Halimun (Kurniati 2003) and CGI Concession Mount Salak (Kusrini et al this 18 report) Table 3-2 Pond characteristics in Chevron Geothermal Indonesian Concession Mount 22 Salak Table 3-3 Vegetation used as perching site by Philautus vittiger at CGI-Salak 22 concession Table 3-4 Embryonic development in P. vittiger based from field and laboratory observation. Development duration of each eggs varied, data below shows 25 the fastest development duration Table 3-5 Morphometric measurement of eight Philautus vittiger tadpoles taken from different ponds at CGI concession in Mount Halimun-Salak National Park. All 28 measurements are in mm. iii List of Appendix Appendix-1 Development of Philautus vittiger embryos from newly fertilized eggs by a 36 pair of frogs taken on 29th of August 2008 from the field. Appendix-2 Development of Philautus vittiger embryos from newly fertilized eggs by a 36 pair of frogs taken on September 2008 from the field Appendix-3 Development of 14 Philautus vittiger tadpoles raised in lab. at Faculty of 36 Forestry in Bogor taken from 28 May 2008 Appendix-4 Development of Philautus vittiger embryos raised in lab. Eggs including the leaf where it hangs were taken in 29 August 2009 from the field. The embryo 37 inside eggs were already in stage 23-24 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work is made possible from funding from Chevron Corporation to the Wildlife Trust in partnership with Peka Foundation Indonesia. We thank the management of Chevron Geothermal Indonesia for access and assistance during field works. We thank Damayanti Buchori, Shinta Puspitasari, Bandung Sahari, Wika, Heri Tabadepu, and Iyus, from Peka Foundation for advice and assistance in the field. We are grateful for the assistant of Mr. Ucup, Mr. Jejen and family who had shared their house with us every month. Dede Hendra Setiawan, Asyrafi, Nur Ikhwan, Akmal, Arif Tajali, Beny Aladin and Neneng Sholihat had volunteered their time in the field, thank you. We also appreciate advices and insights given by Jodi Rowley during the preparation of this report. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The forest surrounding the Chevron Geothermal Indonesia (CGI) Mount Halimun- Salak National Park concession offers a unique opportunity to study the distribution and natural history of tree frog, especially to understand how habitat within a geothermal concession might still able to sustain tree frog diversity. As part of the broad project of tree frog conservation in Indonesia, our first year aims are to map the distribution of tree frog within the CGI concessions and the surrounding corridor area to increase our understanding of the role of habitat for the conservation of this species and to study the breeding ecology of Philautus vittiger. Six species of tree frog (Rhacophoridae) is found in CGI concessions, consisted of one new record for West Java, which is Polypedates otilophus. Other tree frog species found are Rhacophorus reinwardtii, Rhacophorus javanus, Philautus aurifasciatus, Philautus vittiger, Polypedates leucomystax. The primary habitat for Philautus vittiger is permanent pond. Result from this research shows that the development of artificial and semi-artificial ponds by the CGI managements has benefit the frogs by providing suitable breeding habitat for this species. Males were found calling in all observed locations during the six month observation periods. Females attending breeding sites were either taking care of the clutch or ready to breed. Mean number of eggs in one clutch is 52 (n = 12; range: 37 – 66 eggs, SD= 8.25). Eggs are un-pigmented, pale yellow in color and coated by sticky jelly substance. The diameter of egg is 3.98 mm (stage 11) to 4.96 (stage 21). Fertilized eggs will hatched after about 16 days. Tadpoles will emerge as stage 25 and slide to water below the leaves . Tadpoles will stay in stage 25 for quite some time (48 days the fastest), growing its body before moving to the next stage. After about 2 months tadpole will be in stage 26-36 where hind limb develop.