Climbing the night away!

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Lindsay

Green climbing toad (Incillius coniferus)

Cute Frog of the Week: December 26, 2010

Most of us normally don’t imagine toads as arboreal creatures because we normally have to avoid stepping on them on the ground while gardening or hiking in the woods. But the green climbing toad is quite adept at, well, climbing. This nocturnal toad can be found high up in trees and shrubs, ranging from humid lowlands in eastern Nicaragua to Ecuador, though most have been found in Central America.

These toads have a stout body with small skin folds across the chest as well as on their heels and knees. They can be found in a variety of colors from yellow-green to olive green, and are sometimes even a dull gray to brown. Their color patterns often tend to be either solid or have contrasting lighter and darker blotches and/or gold spots.

In addition, they are covered in warts, some of which are dark in color and can even be somewhat spiky in texture. Their long fingers and toes are slightly webbed and have tiny horizontal ridges on them. Their fingers and toes are also different lengths.

The green climbing toad is not endangered, but the largest threat to this species is the loss of its habitat from deforestation, mining, logging and urbanization.

Photo by Brian Gratwicke, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Every week the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project posts a new photo of a cute frog from anywhere in the world with an interesting, fun and unique story to tell. Be sure to check back every Monday for the latest addition.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

Celebrating Frogs at the Holidays

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Lindsay

Defenders of Wildlife's Cindy Hoffman gets in the holiday spirit this year with oragami frogs.

If you love frogs and toads like I do, you probably have a few around the house or garden. Frogs play an important role in nature by controlling insects. But they have been worshiped for generations for other reasons. The Egyptians looked upon the frogs as a symbol of life and fertility and have their own frog goddess known as “Heqet.” The Chinese worship the “three legged frog” for bringing wealth and good fortune. Frog decorations are used to attract wealth and prosperity. These frogs are also closely associated with the art of feng shui. And Celtic lore associates the frog as a symbol of magic and a form that initiates the “leaping” from one world to another.

This week, as I decorated for the upcoming holidays gatherings at my house, I thought it would be fun to decorate with frogs. I found this great website that shows how to make paper frogs, so I thought I would give it a try.

As we celebrate Christmas, Hanukah, the Winter Solstice and the New Year, why not incorporate frogs into your festivities? And make a special new year’s wish that the good folks dedicating their lives to finding a cure for chytrid fugus hit the jackpot this year. We need our frogs around.

—Cindy Hoffman, Defenders of Wildlife

Polka-dotted beauty.

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Lindsay

Fringe-limbed tree frog (Cochranella euknemos)

Cute Frog of the Week: December 19, 2011

The beautiful fringe-limbed tree frog is named for the small amount of whitish, fleshy fringe along the edges of its lower arms, hands, legs and feet. However, it is most memorable for its distinct colors—a deep blueish-green covered with many raised, yellowish-white spots. Their skin is also somewhat transparent, and their bones appear greenish through their skin. The fringe-limbed tree frog does not start out this beautiful, however. As if having to grow into their colors, the tadpoles, with their very long tails, are pale in color.

Because of this frog’s particularly long snout, its eyes are completely visible from the front of its head, unlike some other frogs, whose eyes can only be seen from the side. The specific name, euknemos, derives from Greek and means “with beautiful legs.” The male mating call sounds like a rapidly repeated “creep, creep, creep.”

These frogs can be found in humid Central and South American forests. They are more abundant in Columbia, but rare in Costa Rica and Panama because of deforestation.

Photo by Brian Gratwicke, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

A Family of Frogs

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Lindsay

This species of poison dart frog is well known for its attentiveness to its children. (Photo by Mehgan Murphy, Smithsonian's National Zoo)

With Thanksgiving just past and Christmas around the corner, this is a time of year many people turn toward family. While frogs are not the most social of animals and certainly do not celebrate the holidays, they do have a wide range of ways to care for their young.

The vast majority of frogs and toads reproduce by laying eggs in streams, ponds, vernal pools, or any other body of water they can find in the spring. The American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) and spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) are two common examples native to the United States. In both species, males stake out territories on the edge of a pond and call loudly to attract females. Once they mate, the eggs are laid in or near the water. After this, mom and dad are basically out of the picture.

However, these tadpoles are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. In some species, they gather in large groups, oftentimes with siblings. Amazingly, even in this mostly hands-off approach to parenting, family still comes first!

Now, we can head to some of the more dedicated parents of the amphibian world.

First up is a species of poison dart frog well known for their attentiveness to their children, the strawberry poison frog (Oophaga pumilio). This little frog is common in the rainforests of Central America, from Nicaragua to Panama. The eggs of the strawberry poison frog are not laid in the water so the males take up the duty of carrying water in their cloaca to keep the clutch of eggs moist. These dedicated fathers can even move around to take care of multiple clutches at the same time!

After one to two weeks, the eggs hatch and the female takes over care. She spreads out the tadpoles between small pools of water in bromeliads by carrying them on her back, giving each one its own pool. Finally, she will continue to care for the tadpoles by feeding them unfertilized eggs until they are large enough to begin metamorphosis.

Luckily, the strawberry poison frog is listed as a species of least concern by the IUCN because of its large and widespread population.

It cannot be said that all male frogs abandon their babies before they are adults. Darwin’s frog (Rhinoderma darwinii) is almost unique in the extraordinary effort males put into caring for their young.

After the eggs are laid and fertilized, the male stays around to guard the eggs. A few days before they hatch, he gulps them down into his vocal sac, where they will grow and develop all the way into adults. There are special glands in the male’s vocal sac that secrete food for up to 19 tadpoles that he may be carrying. Once they are old enough, the young hop out of dad’s mouth to start life on their own.

Darwin’s frog is currently listed as vulnerable by the IUCN due to habitat destruction in its native country of Chile.

As you can see, not all frogs take the hands-off approach our native species do in the United States. Some frogs are very dedicated parents. This season at dinner, ask yourself (or your family!): Are we really so different from frogs?

– Andrew Franks, Zoo New England

It’s not that I’m afraid of heights.

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Lindsay

Caracas snouted treefrog (Scinax rostratus)

Cute Frog of the Week: Dec. 5, 2011

Although considered a tree frog, don’t go looking for this species too high up in the trees. Even though they are great climbers, these drably colored frogs seem to prefer to stay mainly on vegetation that is lower to the ground and that tends to grow around small ponds. They can be recognized by their raspy call: “Yek Yek Yek.”

These frogs can be found in the lowlands of central Panama to Colombia and northern Venezuela. They prefer subtropical or tropical forests, moist savanna, and freshwater marshes, but have also been seen in pastureland and rural gardens. Their common name comes from Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and their Latin name is derived from the Greek word skinos, which means quick or nimble.

While the Caracas snouted tree frog has a stable wild population, the species is threatened by habitat destruction.

Photo by Mauricio Rivera Correa.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

Conserving Frogs and Identifying an Invader in Panama

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Lindsay

A group of researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute confirmed this frog's identity as the "greenhouse frog," Eleutherodactylus planirostris. (Photo courtesy of STRI)

A team of dedicated amphibian caretakers, volunteers and Smithsonian scientists assembled their field gear, chytrid swab kits and swamp boots. Preparation was imperative for the week-long field expedition to the remote tropical rainforest in the Darien Province of eastern Panama. The team’s intention was to survey the site, still relatively untouched by fungal amphibian disease, and to collect individuals of species targeted for conservation at the captive rearing and breeding facility at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). As had been the case in the last expeditions to these little-studied places, there was also a high probability of finding new species.

But storms made it impossible to land a plane at the site, so the trip was canceled. Disappointed, the team went back to work at the captive-breeding facility.

At the same time, another group of researchers at STRI identified another species of frog. Instead of being “new” to biology, this was an invader, native to the islands of the Caribbean, but new to Panama. In late 2008, herpetologists heard unusual calls in the gardens of suburban Panama City. A lack of local knowledge and individuals for comparison made definite identification difficult at first, so a genetic technique called DNA barcoding was employed to finally confirm the frogs’ identity as the “greenhouse frog,” Eleutherodactylus planirostris. Since then, many more individuals have been collected, confirming their presence.

DNA barcoding complements the more traditional techniques of identifying species based on body shape and size. Barcoding uses standardized snippets of mitochondrial genes that vary between species but not within individuals of the same species. DNA from the greenhouse frog was compared to sequences available in large worldwide databases like GenBank, kind of like matching the picture of a criminal to one of the faces in a line-up of suspects.

In 2010, a group of scientists working at STRI published a paper on amphibian diversity established using DNA barcoding. The paper and study came in the wake of massive frog species die-offs in central Panama caused by the fungal disease chytridiomycosis. “This is the first time that we’ve used genetic barcodes—DNA sequences unique to a given species—to characterize an entire amphibian community,” said Eldredge Bermingham, STRI director and co-author. “STRI has also done barcoding on this scale for tropical trees on in our forest dynamics-monitoring plot in Panama. The before-and-after approach we took with the frogs tells us exactly what was lost to this deadly disease in this area—33 percent of their evolutionary history.”

Applying a technique like barcoding in new places results in new knowledge and also raises many more questions than it answers. What will the effect of the loss of so many frog species be on the insects that the frogs ate and on the snakes and birds that ate the frogs? How did an invasive frog species arrive in Panama City from the Caribbean? More updates soon….from Panama!

–Charlie Hruska, Columbia University and Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project volunteer

The escape artist.

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Lindsay

Giant barred frog (Mixophyes iteratus)

Cute Frog of the Week: Nov. 28, 2011

The Houdini of Australia’s rainforest, the great barred frog, is an escape artist who has plenty of tricks to help it elude predators. Growing up to 8 centimeters in length, these frogs are often dark brown in color, which helps them blend in with the fallen leaves. To further camouflage themselves, barred frogs will stiffen and flatten their backs to avoid detection on the forest floor. If spotted, they have webbed feet on their powerful hind legs that allow them to leap great distances into streams and rivers where they quickly swim away. Even the youngsters have special gambits. After mating, the females deposit eggs along the river bank. Usually the first rain washes the eggs into the stream where the tadpoles hatch. However, the rains don’t always come before the eggs hatch and the tadpoles must make their way to the water by wiggling down the rocks without any arms or legs. How’s that for a magic trick?

Photo by Frank Lemckert via ARKive.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

The Green Gobbler

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Lindsay

North American Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana)

Cute Frog of the Week: Nov. 21, 2011

The American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) is the largest frog species in North America. Males can reach up to 8 inches long and weigh in at nearly 2 pounds. And this guy takes pleasure in throwing his weight around. Bullfrogs are notorious for eating anything they can get their mouths around, including snakes, mice, birds, insects or even other bullfrogs. Because of their insatiable appetite, the frogs are sometimes considered a nuisance to places where they’ve reduced local populations of fish, turtles or other frogs. Although the males’ “mooing” mating call (which can be heard for miles) may be a siren song for the ladies, it should serve as warning to other critters that there’s a bully in the pond.

Photo by Joe Milmoe, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/

Hitchhiking Frog Lands at Houston Zoo

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Lindsay

A Savigny’s Tree Frog caught a ride from Syria to Texas and found a home at the Houston Zoo. (Photo courtesy of the Houston Zoo)

At the Port of Houston it is the job of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists to intercept pests arriving in shipping containers from different parts of the world. Not much surprises the CBP staff, but that changed on Sept. 16 when CBP agriculture specialists working at the Port of Houston’s Bayport Terminal opened up a shipping container that had arrived on a ship from the Middle East.

There, sitting quietly on a pallet of imported stone, was a tree frog.

The frog was captured quickly and delivered to U.S. Fish and Wildlife specialists who contacted the Houston Zoo looking for assistance to identify the little hitchhiker. Houston Zoo Herpetology Curator Stan Mays and Senior Keeper Chris Bednarski identified the stowaway as a Middle Eastern tree frog, specifically a Savigny’s tree frog.

Stan was happy to make the Houston Zoo the frog’s new home. “Our research indicates that only one other zoo has this animal–the Dierenpark Emmen Zoo in the Netherlands and at last count they had 23 of them,” says Stan.

The frog showed no ill effects from its long trip in the dark from the Middle East. “From what we were told by CBP staff, the container in which it was found was sealed shut in Syria and had not been opened until it arrived in Houston,” says Stan.

Released by CBP to Stan and Chris, the frog was taken to the Houston Zoo’s quarantine building where it made short work of what everyone assumed was its first decent meal in some time. “On its first day in quarantine the frog consumed six crickets,” says Stan.

The intrepid traveler was moved from quarantine Nov. 9 to an off exhibit area at the Houston Zoo’s reptile house. “He’s doing fine. He’s big and healthy,” says Stan.

While the little frog may have surprised the CBP specialists, the Savigny’s tree frog is quite common in Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the island of Cyprus, the Republic of Georgia and Turkey. “They’re the only tree frog found in Egypt,” says Stan.

They are native to deserts and semi-deserts and are found near water bodies such as oasis, gardens, bush lands and the edges of mountain forests. The snout-to-vent length ranges between 30 to 47 mm. The Savigny’s tree frog is probably one of the most heat-tolerant species of all the tree frogs, living in very hot and dry regions. When it isn’t their breeding season, these tree frogs are fairly inactive by day. In fact, they may sit motionless for hours, becoming active only in darkness. In the evening twilight, the frogs become active and start to forage and come to water bodies to rehydrate.

They hibernate on land from October until the beginning of November to March or April. When they hibernate, they burrow in the soil and other hiding places. As tadpoles, they feed on plant and animal matter in the ponds where they hatched. As adults, they feed on all sorts of insects.

The male’s breeding call resembles a cicada chirping.

—Brian Hill, Houston Zoo

Sound the bell.

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Lindsay

Red-eyed stream frog (Duellmanohyla uranochroa)

Cute Frog of the Week: Nov. 7, 2011

If you are hearing bells, there’s a possibility that a wedding’s in your future or that Christmas carolers are about to knock on your door. But if you’re in the subtropics of Panama and Costa Rica, you are likely hearing the distinct bell-like mating call of the red-eyed stream frog. This call sounds like “boop, boop, boop,” and can be heard in May and June.

This cute little frog is typically found in the Caribbean slopes of the Provincia del Pocas del Torro, Panama and Costa Rica. This area is a subtropical habitat, and most frogs are active during the night, so keep an ear open for them.

The red-eyed tree frog is leafy green in color, with a yellow throat and belly, and apricot-colored thighs. Its fingers and toes are slightly webbed and, of course, it has bright red eyes. Some researchers have wondered why their eyes are such a striking color, and have come up with a possible theory that they call “startle coloration.” This is a type of protection that allows the frogs to abruptly glance at or open their eyes when a predator shows up. This can startle the predator enough that they pause momentarily, allowing the frog time, though brief, to leap to a safe place out of its reach.

This is a critically endangered species, and the largest threats to them are general habitat alteration/losses, climate change and disease.

Photo by Andreas Hertz via ARKive.

Send us your own cute frogs by uploading your photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cutefrogoftheweek/