Endangered Goliath Frog Conraua goliath (Boulenger, 1906): Threats, feeding habit and changes in habitat around the Douala-Edea National Park in Cameroon

Conraua goliath is the largest living frog on earth only found in restricted areas in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea; ranked by IUCN as endangered and fully protected (class A) by Cameroon’s forestry law. Knowledge on the species is still poorly documented. Using the Douala Edea National park, some ecological data at a finer scale are provided; such as: morphometric measurements taken on captured frogs, physico-chemicals parameters of rivers known as goliath frog habitat, threat identified by the survey of hunting and state of habitat, and inventory of macro invertebrate composing their diet. Length and weight were 31.13 ± 4.95cm and 225 ± 114.56 g (n=22) indicating that most captured specimen were juvenile. Giant frog preferred basic waters (8.5≤ pH ≤ 9.96) with temperatures ranging from 25.9 to 28.7°C, and rocky area with waterfall favoring high concentration of dissolved oxygen (5.3 to 8.3mg/L). Major threats were hunting and deforestation. Feeding habit is composed by 23 species of invertebrates dominated by Desmoscaris sp. There is a need to extend the geographical range of the study, to compile a strong data base needed by decision maker to develop a sustainable conservation policy and management plan for giant frog across its range.