Cover photo by Eloise Costandius.
Find the Cape Mountain Rain Frog in the FBIS database (Freshwater Biodiversity Information System) here.
Family Brevicepitidae
Identification
Like all Breviceps species, the Cape Mountain Rain Frog has a stout, rounded body and short legs. The eyes are small to medium-sized, and the tympanum is not visible. The dorsal surface is dark with large, pale paravertebral patches fused into a band with dark, wavy edges. The undersides are white with dark markings concentrated around the throat. The Cape Mountain Rain Frog has a prominent dark facial mask that runs from the eye to the base of the arm.
Bushmanskloof, Western Cape
Photo by Zenobia van Dyk
Habitat
The Cape Mountain Rain Frog is restricted to the Fynbos Biome, and usually occurs in Mountain Fynbos vegetation. However, it is also known from altered habitats such as pine plantations. It is usually found on coarse, acidic, sandy soils, but it is also known from heavier, shale-derived soils. It generally occurs at high altitudes but is also found at sea level in areas where mountains reach the coast (e.g. Betty’s Bay 3418BD). In such coastal situations it appears to be restricted to fynbos vegetation and is not found in coastal thicket (cf. B. rosei).
Behaviour
Despite a relatively extensive distribution in the Western Cape, little is known about the biology of the Cape Mountain Rain Frog. Calling occurs both at night and during the day, usually during and after rain showers in winter and spring (June–November). Dense mist may also be sufficient to stimulate calling. Channing (2001) collected a female with large eggs in October, and recorded calling activity in January. Males have been found calling from vegetation above ground level (Visser 1979d) or while moving about on the surface (L.R. Minter pers. obs.). The breeding biology is assumed to be similar to that of other members of the genus.
Fernkloof, Western Cape
Photo by Keir Lynch
Status and Conservation
The Cape Mountain Rain Frog occurs in relatively undisturbed montane habitat and is found within several protected areas. The Cape Mountain Rain Frog is not threatened and is probably secure for the foreseeable future.
Distribution
This diminutive species occurs widely in the Cape fold mountains of the Western Cape Province, from northeast of Clanwilliam (3118DD), to the Outeniqua Mountains in the southeast (3323CC). On the Cape Peninsula it occurs with B. gibbosus in some localities, and to the east its range coincides, in part, with that of B. acutirostris and B. fuscus.
The Cape Mountain Rain Frog probably occurs in several relatively inaccessible mountainous areas not surveyed during the atlas period. The eastern limits of its distribution, in particular, are not yet certain.
Further Resources
The use of photographs by Eloise Costandius, Keir Lynch, and Zenobia van Dyk is acknowledged.
Cape Mountain Rain Frog Breviceps montanus Power, 1926
Other Common Names: Mountain Rain Frog (Alt. English); Kaapse Bergblaasoppadda (Afrikaans)
Recommended citation format: Harrison, JA; Tippett, RM. (2025). Cape Mountain Rain Frog Breviceps montanus. Biodiversity and Development Institute, Cape Town. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2022/02/01/cape-mountain-rain-frog-breviceps-montanus/
This species text has been updated and expanded from the text in the
2004 frog atlas: Harrison, JA. (2004). Cape Mountain Rain Frog Breviceps montanus. In Minter LR et al 2004.
References:
Minter, LR; Burger, M; Harrison, JA; Braack, HH; Bishop, PJ; Kloepfer, D. (Editors). (2004). Atlas and Red Data Book of the Frogs of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, and Avian Demography
Unit, Cape Town.
Carruthers, V; du Preez, L. (2017). Frogs of southern Africa: A Complete Guide. Struik Nature, Cape Town.
Channing, A. (2001) Amphibians of Central and Southern Africa. Protea Book House, Pretoria
Claus, B; Claus, R. (2002). Common Amphibians and Reptiles of Botswana. Gamsberg Macmillan, Windhoek.
