Introduction

Most visitors as well as residents of eastern Africa are unappreciative of the variety of amphibians and reptiles found there. With the exception of some people who value snakes for mystical and curative properties, the reptiles are generally great feared and killed whenever encountered, and even amphibians such as frogs and toads are regarded with some suspicion.

Although the layman may be familiar with some of the larger, more conspicuous amphibians and reptiles in the open habitats such as woodlands, and those species which can survive in and around man's dwellings, very few people spend enough time inside natural forest to identify the various amphibians and reptiles found there. These are often cryptically coloured, and some may be found only high in the forest canopy, or hiding inside rotting logs and leaf litter of the forest floor. Thus, all but a very few of those people who live near the forest and work in it are unfamiliar with some of its most interesting inhabitants. Among the amphibians, there are brightly coloured treefrogs which are able to change their colours: a frog, Leptopelis uluguruensis with a colour pattern which resembles a small patch of fungus; and a toad, Bufo brauni which closely resembles a dead leaf on the forest floor.