On October 5, 1981, three biology students on vacation from National Taiwan Normal University went to Feits'ui Reservoir in northern Taiwan to study amphibians. As they were settling down to sleep that night in front of an abandoned farmhouse, they heard the faint croaking of a kind of frog they couldn't identify. They followed the sounds to a hibiscus tree and there on the branches saw four or five tree frogs with bright green heads and backs, snow-white stomachs, brown legs, and bulging gold eyes. They couldn't think what kind they were for the life of them.

With the excitement of explorers discovering a new continent, they brought some of the frogs back with them to their professors at the university and searched through every record they could, native or foreign, but came up with nothing. Suspecting that the frogs belonged to an undiscovered species, Professor Lu Kuang-yang named them Feits'ui tree frogs and sent a specimen to the French National Museum of Natural Sciences for further investigation.

Unexpectedly, the French leapt at the chance to publish a report on the frog first, giving the species the scientific name of Rhacophorus Prasinatus. Their action touched off a minor battle of scholarly ink that has made the little frog internationally renowned in biology circles and has still not completely subsided.

At the same time, letters poured in from people around Taiwan, each claiming to have seen the frogs at such and such a place. All of a sudden it seemed as if every corner of the island were jumping with Feits'ui frogs.

Lu and his colleague Chen Shih-huang excitedly led students to investigate the reports. But after a year of running around they found they had worn out their shoes in vain. The only place the frogs can be found at present is still in just three or four locations around the Feits'ui reservoir and then only in small numbers--the most that can be seen at one time is around ten. The frogs were immediately designated a protected species.

How is the Feits'ui different from other tree frogs? "Of the seven kinds of tree frogs discovered on the island, three are green and the rest brownish." Chen explains. "Many people who think they've seen Feits'uis may actually have seen one of the other two." He offers an easy way of distinguishing among them. The Feits'ui is the biggest, about 5 or 6 cm. from tip to tail. Another kind is smaller and paler, while the third has colorful spots on its sides. Biologists can distinguish the frogs by sound, but it's not easy for the layperson.

The frogs' green coloration is an excellent camouflage in the trees. It enables them not only to hide from their enemy the snake but also to fool insects into mistaking them for a leaf and thus get their food delivered right to their doorstep.

The frogs pass their whole lives in the trees, hibernating, mating, and even laying eggs there. But the tadpoles that hatch from the eggs can live only in water. "It's remarkable that there's always been water under every tree that we've found Feits'ui eggs in. The first tadpoles we found were in a broken bucket!" Chen says the frogs seem always to lay their eggs on the branches of trees with buckets or puddles underneath knowing that the tadpoles will drop straight down into the water after hatching.

"Since Feits'ui frogs were discovered only four years ago, a lot of their habits and peculiarities are still awaiting investigation," Lu says. The building of Feits'ui reservoir apparently didn't affect their habitat. "Nevertheless, further study is urgent and necessary," another specialist adds. "We already missed a chance to put out the first report about them; we mustn't miss out on the second."