AmphibiaChina 中国两栖类.

Conservation Status (definitions)

IUCN Red List Status Account Vulnerable (VU) CITES No CITES Listing National Status None Regional Status None

Description
Males are about 42 mm in length; females are about 51 mm. Head rather flat, and head width is shorter than length. Round snout; thin, vertically aligned pupil. Triangular shaped interorbital dark brown mark, and no tympanum. Teeth on upper jaw are long, closely aligned, and well developed. The dorsal surface is reddish brown, with thin olive and golden colored spots; irregularly aligned and shaped gland folds; pointy granules; and a pair of long, arc shaped, gland folds located near the middle portion of the sides. Ventral surface is smooth, with many small, grayish brown spots. The hind legs are not very long, and the heels do not meet. There are granules and small black protrusions scattered on the bottom sides of all four legs. Femoral glands present. Tibia joint extends to where tympanum would be. The toe tips are round, with a narrow fringe. The forth toe has rudimentary webbing.

Males have small and dense nuptial spines on the inner three fingers as well as the inner side of the forelegs. There are also two pairs of nuptial pads proximal to the chest, in which the inner pair is larger than the outer pair. Eggs are about 3.5 mm in diameter. When tadpoles are about 33 mm long, the head-body length is about 12 mm. When the tadpoles are about 51 mm, the head-body length is about 20 mm. The labial tooth row is I : 3 - 3 / I : 2 - 2. The labial edge is wide, and the teeth are short and weak.

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: China

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Scutiger chintingensis resides in and nearby open water on mountain peaks. The elevation ranges from 2500 to 3050m asl. The species is unique to Sichuan Province (Counties: Emei, Hongya, Wenchuan).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
Adults live in holes on land where roots of vegetation provide moisture during the day. At night, frogs emerge and make "ge, ge…" calls . The reproductive season is from late May to early June. They lay eggs in streams at the bottom of rocks. The eggs are round and grouped in a circular patch. Each female lays about 150 eggs. Tadpoles live in water where the current flow is slow, or beneath rocks in open water.

Trends and Threats
There has been a serious population decline in the past ten years; Scutiger chintingensis is endangered and only found in three locations in Sichuan. The main causes of population decline are habitat destruction and water pollution.

References

Fei, L. (1999). Atlas of Amphibians of China. Henan Publishing House of Science and Technology, Zhengzhou.

Fei, L. and Ye, C. (2001). The Colour Handbook of the Amphibians of Sichuan. Chinese Forestry Publishing House, Beijing.

IUCN, Conservation International, and NatureServe. 2004. Global Amphibian Assessment. <www.globalamphibians.org>. Accessed on 14 February 2005.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2005 Scutiger chintingensis: Chinting Alpine Toad <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/2512> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Jan 27, 2025.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2025. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 27 Jan 2025.

AmphibiaWeb's policy on data use.