Panamanian Golden Frog
The The Panamanian Golden Frog scientific name is Panamanian Golden Frog is one of the only types of frogs that can naturally produce venom. They are diurnal (active in the day and asleep at night).
Description
Males have black spots and females don't. Also females are bigger and are pure gold. The reason they are bright gold is because in the animal kingdom the colours yellow, red and black warn predators that they are poisonous. The froglets are brown and tiny.
Habitat
Panamanian Golden Frogs live in the wet rainforests and dry cloud forests in the Cordilleran Mountain range.
Breeding and Early Life
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They mate between November to January. Throughout that time its the late rainy and early dry season. Because their mating call is very hard to hear they attract the females by hand waving (semaphore). This type of behaviour is not found in very many frog species! If the female doesn't like his waving, she will not mate with him. The male will piggyback the female for several days and or even weeks until she finds a good place to lay her eggs. She will look for a shallow pool or creek , out of sunlight, with rocks or pebbles in it. She lays a single, long strand of eggs that is attached to a rock or pebbles. As soon as she lays her eggs, the male will fertilize them. Like most amphibians, they will take no part in raising their young! About nine days later, tadpoles will hatch. They spend 6 to 7 months in the streams where they hatched, eating algae off rocks and turning into froglets. The froglets are brown and tiny when they first hop out of the water and onto a nearby leaf. They continue to eat and grow once on land, gradually changing colour and pattern, and building up toxins in their skin.
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Threats
Panamanian Golden Frogs have two threats. 1. Habitat Destrition, there habitat is open destroyed to be made into roads! 2. Critic Fungus, Critic Fungus was introduced when a indudeuced frog had this virus and when hopped in a pond that pond got infected and when other frogs hopped in it they became infected swell and it just keeps on spreading. It has spread so much that most of the world has this fungus! When the fungus gets to bad the frog will die.
Conservation
Luckily there is still hope for the Panamanian Golden Frogs. I am very grateful that conservationists still try to preserve their habitat! There are also many fantastic breeding programs. Biologists began to recognise over 10 years ago, before there was chytrid fungus in Panama, that this frog was in deep trouble. A conservation project was started in the 1990s. Since 1999 Maryland Zoo has been partnering with other zoos in North America and Panama to work on Project Golden Frog. Maryland Zoo in the first zoo to breed Panamanian golden frogs.
How You Can Help
- Spread The Message.
- Support Panamanian Golden Frog Conservation & Raise Money.
Image Credits
Jaime Garcia-Moreno