Harlequin frog: external features, lifestyle, photos, causes of extinction

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

This unusual frog is an endangered amphibian found in Panama and Costa Rica. Belongs to the family Real toads and the genus Panama harlequin. This is a large genus of tailless amphibians. Despite the status of an endangered species of frogs, there are about 110 varieties of it in the genus. They are all very brightly colored.

Distribution

These amphibians inhabit certain regions of South and Central America: the territory of Costa Rica and south to Bolivia, excluding Guiana, as well as the coastal regions of Brazil. The vast majority of species of the genus are practically not studied, they are extremely rare even within the range.

Today, atelopus varius has a sad situation: more than 2/3 of the representatives of this species have become extinct in just 10 years. The beginning of their disappearance began in the 80s of the last century. We will talk about the reasons for their extinction a little later.

This kind of frog lives in humid forests, in mountain valleys. Scientists have never been able to see how harlequin frogs mate in the wild. Researchersit is assumed that this happens in rocky streams. It was in them that their tadpoles were found.

External Features

The color of these amphibians is always very bright, although the color palette may be different. Most often, there are many bright spots on a dark background. There are other color options: orange and green, red and yellow and even purple. The harlequin frog gets its name from its bright coloration.

The frog has thin and long forelimbs, the hind legs are even longer, but they are much thicker. The length of males reaches four centimeters, females - three and a half centimeters.

Lifestyle

Despite the fact that this animal is diurnal, it is not easy to spot even during daylight hours. The harlequin frog spends the night on the leaves, they are active in the daytime. Many tourists who have visited Panama note that they have not seen representatives of this species in the wild, although official sources claim that it is in Panama that most of these unusual frogs live.

The bright colors of the harlequin frog are not accidental - they warn that it is unsafe to eat. The amphibian is really poisonous. If a fish eats it, it won't survive. The strongest poison is found in the skin, more precisely, in the skin fluid.

When a stranger approaches, males desperately defend their territory: the owner warns with a buzzing sound that the territory is occupied. Sometimes males fight for territory - the rightful owner catches up with the rival and jumps on him.

Food

This frog feeds on insects (flies, ants, caterpillars), small arthropods. There are no problems with food - there are many insects throughout Panama and in the vicinity of Panama City.

Causes of extinction

Scientists believe that in the tropics of Costa Rica and Panama, at an altitude of more than 1.5 thousand meters, there is a serious threat to the local fauna due to global warming. Climate change changes the air temperature, often fogs form, leading to changes in humidity levels. It is in tropical forests that the relationship between ecosystem change and climate change is particularly visible.

For this reason, the foggy forests have become natural laboratories for scientists, where they study the effects of global warming on the life of amphibians. Their numbers have declined significantly in recent years. The harlequin frog is a prime example of this process.

However, an increase in air temperature in itself could not lead to the extinction of frogs. When there is a significant increase in temperature, the fog in the forests is reduced, the harlequin frogs have to live more compactly in the remaining areas, and this situation is stressful for them.

As a result, frog organisms become more susceptible to various infections and diseases. In addition, scientists attribute the decline in the population of this frog species to the presence of the chytridiomycosis fungus, which can exterminate the species in two to three months.

However, the researchers found thatthat even in areas where there is no this fungus, the number of amphibians continues to decline rapidly. Scientists from the Academy of Sciences of Costa Rica have been conducting research for 35 years. According to their results, the number of reptiles and amphibians has decreased by almost 75%. Studies were conducted in La Selva and Costa Rica, where there is no deadly fungus, so scientists have concluded that rainfall and rising temperatures affect population numbers. People do not influence the extinction of the population: they do not catch frogs and do not reduce their natural habitats.

This only says that the reason for the disappearance of harlequin frogs is complex. In some regions, this is due to the fungus chytridiomycosis, in others - the reduction of foggy tropics, in others - with global warming. All these reasons are inextricably linked. If today you can still meet representatives of the species in the wild (although extremely rare), then in a few years they may disappear from our planet.