#andinobates geminisae

[worldwidecuriosities-blog]

What is peculiar about this frog?

It’s a very singular orange colour frog called ‘Andinobates Geminisae’. This specie outlines upon its bright and plain colourful skin. It was discovered by Samuel Valdés and his field assistant, Carlos de la Cruz in the tropical forest in Donoso, province of Colón, in the north of Panama in February on 2011.

An ‘Andinobates Geminisae’ combines danger and exoticism. They are very poisonous and their size is no more than a fingernail, around 12,7 mm long. They highlight because of their vibrant and neon plain orange dorsum and belly, a warning signal for predators. The prominent character making them unique from other group members (‘andinobates’) is their peculiar male warning call. Listen here!

http://amphibiaweb.org/sounds/Andinobates_geminisae8.wav

(Andinobates    Geminisae)

(Oophaga)

Still a mysterious…amazing!

It is not known yet if the presence of one or two spaced pulses (“clicks”), at the beginning or at the end of the call, has some influence on behaviour. There was the possibility they might have the same social behaviours than their neighbours, the ‘Oophaga’, other very similar frog, but they are not that social but respectful within the habitat. The curious thing is this specie was observed from years ago and professionals confused them with the ‘Oophaga’. How many species will we discover after these circumstances? And how many are still remaining in our unknown world?

Why are they special?

There are approximately 4,800 recorded species of frogs. The A. Geminisae is placed in the k-selection unlike most other frogs which are placed in the r-selection. The K-selection species are strong competitors in such crowded niches that invest more heavily in fewer offspring, each of which has a relatively high probability of surviving to adulthood. They care for their young until they are ready to live on their own.

That’s beauty…

How a fingernail animal can be such a big discovery, only adapted to live in a small forest from Panama and leaving us the feeling of how much small we are. I’m really passionate about the smallest worldwide curiosities about animals and animal’s social behaviour and these small pieces of knowledge are which make us share wisdom with our mother nature and remind us the diversity and unique each specie is. It’s a pity their habitat reduction remains the main issue for this type of frog, threating their existence, apart from deforestation and pet trade collectors (which accelerate the process). They basically struggle with climate change, habitat loss, and the deadly chytrid fungus.  Find more