![Picture](/uploads/1/0/5/5/10551590/3327713.jpg?416)
In the mud just off of Chojijin fortress on South Korea's Ganghwado, amid the battling crabs jostling for position, a movement catches my eye. At first, it appears to be just some mud sliding down a small ridge, perhaps pulled by gravity as the tide flows rapidly out. But peering through the camera, the elongated teardrop of mud reveals bulging eyes, pudgy cheeks, muscular arm-like fins, and a delicate sprinkling of blue-white spots. It is a mudskipper! And once I recognize one, I begin to see several others across the flats, their coloration making them at times nearly invisible, their leaping and hopping antics helping them live up to their common name. Googly eyes, fat baby cheeks and puffy lips give it a comical appearance. The muscular pectoral fins look like bodybuilder arms, hefting the flabby body off of the muddy substrate. These are the Big-Finned Mudskipper (Periophthalmus magnuspinnatus), one of a few species endemic to Korea. They live along the west coast, digging U-shaped burrows into the mud, hunting crustaceans, worms and other small prey (and, from what I understand, sometimes ending up in soup themselves). Under water, they breath through gills like other fish. On land, they breath through their skin, a web-like capillary network serving as the primary location for oxygen transfer. Like living cartoon characters, the mudskippers frolic in the late afternoon sun, occasionally dipping back into a small rivulet before climbing the muddy walls to look for lunch or show off for a potential mate.
Some additional information on P. magnuspinnatus can be found at http://www.mudskipper.it/SpeciesPages/mode.html
K: Animalia
P: Chordata
C: Actinopterygii
O: Perciformes
F: Gobiidae
G: Periophthalmus
S: magnuspinnatus
K: Animalia
P: Chordata
C: Actinopterygii
O: Perciformes
F: Gobiidae
G: Periophthalmus
S: magnuspinnatus