A team of scientists say they have found the Krokosua Squeaker Frog or the Giant Squeaker Frog (Arthroleptis krokosua)  at Ghana’s Western Region Sui River Forest Reserve after four years of intensive search.

According to the team of scientists from 'Save the Frogs Ghana', a non-profit organisation dedicated exclusively to amphibian conservation, less than 14 individuals of the West Africa's Krokosua Squeaker Frog are currently in existence.

The organisation's  Executive Director, Gilbert Adum, who led the nine-member team that made the important discovery, says they are “excited about the discovery as this has given hope that together we can save the Giant Squeaker Frog from extinction.”

Students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology's Department of Wildlife and Range Management assisted on the expedition.

The Giant Squeaker Frog was first identified in 2002 from single specimen that research scientists found at the Krokosua Hills in Western Ghana.

Despite active searching to find more frogs it was not until 2009 that another Krokosua Frog was found, when 14 individual frogs, its highest abundance ever, were recorded at the Sui River Forest Reserve.

What was most spectacular about the discovery, according to the scientists, was that the frog was recorded at an entirely new location and was at the highest point of the Sui Hills, 610m above sea level.

The frog was an adult, indicating that a breeding population may be surviving at this location.

However, 'Save the Frogs Ghana' Programmes Coordinator, Sandra Owusu-Gyamfi, who was on the team laments that the Sui Forest faces severe threats from logging, mining, farming and invasion of the alien Devil Weed, popularly called Achempong weed.

She says that the weed invasion and the habitat destruction activities may be the reason the Giant Squeaker Frog is not getting the chance to recover from the brink of extinction.

The team also called on the Forestry Commission and government to immediately delineate and protect the Squeaker Frog’s habitats permanently from any form of exploitation.

Conservation Leadership Programme and 'Save the Frogs USA' funded the project to look for the rare frogs.

 Additional funding was also received from the Rufford Small Grants Foundation, and the German-based Stiftung Artenschutz (Species Conservation Foundation).