Amphibian Behavior and Conservation in the Western Himalaya: Research, Challenges, and Opportunities
In this talk from the July 2026 SAVE THE FROGS! South Asia Meetup, Vishal Kumar Prasad — Secretariat Member of the IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, Ph.D. researcher at the Laboratory of Animal Behaviour and Conservation (Nanjing Forestry University, China), and Research Affiliate at the Wildlife Institute of India — shares his research on amphibian behavior and conservation in the Western Himalaya.
This talk was given as part of the SAVE THE FROGS! South Asia Meetups, a monthly online series (held the last Saturday of every month) featuring researchers and conservationists working to protect amphibians across South Asia and beyond.
What You’ll Learn In This Lesson
- Why the Himalaya is a global amphibian hotspot, and the climate and human pressures putting it at risk
- How integrative taxonomy — combining morphology, bioacoustics, and DNA barcoding — is resolving decades of species confusion among Himalayan frogs and toads
- What frog calls can reveal, from low-frequency advertisement calls to high-frequency distress calls
- The search for Amelops chakratensis, a tree frog unseen for 41 years and recently listed as Critically Endangered.
- How non-invasive tools like eDNA sampling, buccal swabs, and citizen science platforms like iNaturalist can help rediscover lost amphibian species
Watch The Recording
Connect with Vishal Kumar Prasad:
- Instagram: @vishal.k.prasad and @himalayan.amphibians
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vishalprasad.wildlife
About The Speaker
Vishal Kumar Prasad is a Secretariat Member of the IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, a PhD researcher at the Laboratory of Animal Behaviour and Conservation, Nanjing Forestry University, China, and a Research Affiliate at the Wildlife Institute of India. His research focuses on amphibian behaviour, ecology, conservation, and biogeography, with a particular emphasis on threatened amphibians of the Himalaya and Asia. His work integrates field ecology, bioacoustics, molecular tools, species distribution modelling, and conservation planning to address key questions in amphibian biodiversity and conservation. Vishal has authored more than 45 scientific publications, including papers in leading international journals such as Nature Communications, Nature Reviews Biodiversity, BMC, and other peer-reviewed journals. He is actively involved in IUCN Red List assessments, conservation planning, and international collaborations aimed at safeguarding amphibian diversity.
