Fifteen froglets, each small enough to sit on a fingertip: a Ghanaian frog breeds for the first time in human care

In Ghana's Atewa Hills Forest Reserve, one of the world's rarest frogs lives around just two forest pools — and until now, no one had ever bred it in human care. Fifteen Afia Birago's puddle froglets, each about 5mm long, have been born at London Zoo in the first successful breeding of the species anywhere. Adults weigh less than 1.75g — lighter than a paperclip — and the species, described by scientists only in 2018, is named for Afia Birago, mother of the Ghanaian conservationist who helped describe it. Twenty adult frogs arrived in London from Ghana in 2025 under a partnership between London Zoo, Herp Conservation Ghana and Ghana's CSIR-Forestry Research Institute. The keepers' hard-won breeding know-how is now being shared with colleagues at a conservation breeding centre in Kumasi, so Ghana can build its own safety-net population for a frog whose wild home is under pressure from mining.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program