You do not expect to see a fish run away from water, but mudskippers are no ordinary fish. A team for the BBC’s Asia series spent 2 months studying mudskippers. While watching these enigmatic occupants of the Indonesian mudflats, they observed a range of behaviours. This included skipping on mud of course, but also skipping on water, walking, jumping, making burrows, scaling rocks and even climbing trees.
There are over 40 species of mudskipper, ranging in length from 4 cm to over 30 cm. They live an amphibious lifestyle, spending most of their time out of water. They are found in estuaries of the tropics and subtropics, across Africa, Asia, Australia and some Pacific islands (see Figure 1).
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