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| E. nyctophylax |
Tonight we began our survey of the amphibians of Reserva Las Gralarias (RLG). It is supposed to be the dry season, but the constant cold drizzle makes me doubt that there is such a season here in the cloud forest. I decided to start the team out working the upper Mindo trails. "Team Krynak" (Tim, Ed, and myself) was joined by Charley Hesse, a bird guide who is currently working for Jane. Charley seems to enjoy everything on the reserve, not just the birds. I believe that he will find our amphibian survey to be a whole new world on fun.
The night started out a little slow, but the few Lesser Pilalo Robber Frogs (Eleutherodactylus actities) seen hanging on to the grasses kept my anticipation peaked. When we reached the forest edge on Canyons Trail, we found a tiny little juvenile frog. His heals had distinctive tubercles and his eyes a deep reddish bronze color. Later we determined that indeed this was a new species to be recorded on RLG. Eluetherodatylus nyctophylax is considered a vulnerable species by the IUCN redlist. Another vulnerable species called E. appendiculatus, commonly referred to as the Large-snouted Cutin Frog was also found in great abundance on this our first night of surveying.
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| Lesser Pilalo Robber Frog |
When we reached the end of Canyons trail, Tim decided that we should climb down into the stream and take a look. We had been hearing the call of what we believed to be a different type of glass frog than we had found before. The frog was calling over the stream, but for three years now, this species has eluded us, but not this day. I hiked down the stream towards the direction of the call and there he was about 2 meters above the stream sitting on a broad leaf singing his little heart out. This was the highlight of the evening. At night, this frog's eyes were solid black for they needed to allow in all of the light from the moon for this nocturnal creature to find his way. In the morning, his eyes revealed the light goldish tint of his sclera. His fingers are long with large toe pads and his skin translucent green with an opaque white patch covering his heart, but his belly was completely translucent showing us the dinner he was still digesting. We collected the tiny delicate frog to take back to Jane's for more photographs in the morning. He was a fast hopper and we didn't want to risk loosing him in the dense vegetation. He will be returned to his happy home in the morning after his photo shoot.
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| New glass frog spp. for RLG |
On our hike out of the forest we walked Senor Tim's trail where Tim and Ed had placed one of our new infrared cameras. We neared the camera's location and WOW was that flash bright! Hopefully the camera will show creatures other than rain soaked gringos in the morning. Puma tracks are a regular occurrence in that area.... I can't wait to see the pictures! |
