#harlequin tree frog

[stickyfrogs]

Two more Exceptional Friends that we met at Kubah National Park in Borneo! They are Harlequin Tree Frogs (Rhacophorus pardalis), members of a group of frogs known as the flying frogs for their ability to glide from the treetops!

[little-creature-of-the-day]

little creature of the day: Harlequin Tree Frog

kind of giving gummy candy? is that just me?

image source

[navyinks]

dynamic sketching week 5 - insects, reptiles, etc

First time painting with gouache. It was fun and I’m keen to do more

[herpsandbirds]

PLEASE DO YOU HAVE ANY FROGS???

Oh my sweet summer child, you've had the frogs here with you all along...

Magnificent Tree Frog (Ranoidea splendida), family Hylidae, endemic to the Kimberleys of Western Australia

Formerly in the genus Litoria.

photograph by Reptiles4all 

Goliath Frog (Conraua goliath), family Ranidae, found in Cameroon and Equitorial Guinea in West Africa

ENDANGERED.

This is the largest extant frog, growing to a length of 32 cm (12.6 in) snout to vent, and weighing up to 3.25 kg (7.2 lb).

photograph by Mark-Oliver Rödel - Berlin Museum for Natural History

Common Midwife Toad (Alytes cisternasii), male with eggs, family Alytidae, Spain

The male entwines the eggs around his hind legs, and carries them until they are ready to hatch. He then takes them to a body of fresh water.

photograph by Pedro Verdejo

Emei Mustache Toad aka Taosze Spiny Toad, (Leptobrachium boringii), family Megophryidae, endemic to SE China

ENDANGERED.

The larger males grow keratinized spines on the upper lip, which they use to defend territories, during the breeding season. The spines fall off after the breeding season.

photograph: Jingsong Shi

Starry Night Harlequin Toad aka Gowna (Atelopus arsyecue), family Bufonidae, endemic to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED.

Threatened by habitat loss and the Chytrid fungus.

photographs: Jaime Culebras & Beto_Rueda

[figfiggyfigure]

help plz

I am trying to create a blogpack with all of the blogs i find important and want to keep tabs on, (my dash is very cluttered) but i cant see some of these new ones i added? i know they posted recently but i cannot find their posts on my tab. Is there a limit on how many blogs can be in a pack? did i type something wrong?

here is my blogpack link, if you are on it, it just means your in my focused follow list

https://www.tumblr.com/timeline/blogpack?blogs=the-muppet-joker,mydarlingathena,lifedoesntdiscriminate,minuseyes,sarasometimes,doesntdiscriminate,bastardorphan,muppetjoker3000fan,muppetjokernumberfivefan,tibiasnightmare,statleragainstposers,thenewscenemomuppetjokerfan,feltbones,nextnumbermuppetjokerfan,themuppetarchives,themuppetjokernumber420fan,croaker-explained,muppetappleanon,kermitthetankengineno1fan,muppetjokernum8ereightfan,muppetjokernumberfiftysevenfan,inquisitorcroaker,consciousgordiacea,olipopsoda,sisterofthecroaker,thelittlefrogblog,gunchhorseman,croakerconfessions,croaker-s-tongue,into-the-pit,muppet-lurker,stardustsomewhere,pine-apple-cat,muppetjokernonbinaryfan,themuppetjokerfrenchfan,harlequin-kermit,into-the-pit,dispatcher192-c,figfiggyfigure,grapefruide,tomatoes-r-a-fruit,cransprite,squireofthegrove,cheery-cherry-cherub,the-grape-guy,unripe-blackberry,satan666blunt710smoker,tree-of-growth,topnotchtangerine,datecrazy,got-the-blues-berries,beloved-black-currant,lemon-frog-tog,alexander-thornton,theabbeyofgethsemani,chronicallychthonic,alternativestudio20,murielsangelsdreams

[can-of-pringles]

Assign amphibians to your OCs?

Okay (I actually learned a lot about amphibians doing this)

Arline Lanes: Iranian Harlequin Newt

Fox: Madagascar Tomato frog

Carina Shepherd: Strawberry Poison Dart frog

Dannie Karim: Painted Reed frog

Ryn Halvorsen: Flatwoods salamander

Willow Tree: Luschan's Salamander (LOOK AT THOSE BIG EYES ◉_◉)

Silas Petersson: Glass frog (cutie)

Pigeon: Shovel Headed Tree frog (look at this DUDE)

Arith: Blue Spotted salamander

Iriel: Golden Mantella frog

Kaia: Marble salamander

Odel: Axolotl!

Eliška Hasek: Eastern Newt

Marigold Rosales: Spotted Tree frog

Rosie Rosales-Maximoff: Spotted salamander

Allison Dahir: Common Mudpuppy

Lee Quinn: Wehrle's Salamander

Jelaa Latka: Vietnamese Mossy frog

Van Kahl: Pacific Giant Salamander

[fatehbaz]

In the Intag Valley of Ecuador, at this “most biodiverse hotspot on the planet” (the cloud forests of the tropical Andes), local communities have engaged in 30 years of sustained defense of environment and resistance to multiple mining corporations, including Canada’s Copper Mesa Corporation. The group Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag has helped plant tens of thousands of trees while establishing about 40 different forest reserves. Now the planet’s biggest copper producer company (Codelco) is targeting the Intag region, with wells already drilled and important court cases scheduled for 2023. Among the many unique orchids, moths, hummingbirds, plate-billed mountain toucan, spectacled bears, mountain tapirs, critically endangered brown-headed spider monkey, and other creatures, in Intag Valley there are two species of frog which live nowhere else on Earth, previously thought to be extinct: the longnose harlequin frog and the newly-named “rana cohete resistencia de intag” (”Intag resistance rocket frog”). The frogs now provide “hope” and are the subjects of Intag’s pending court cases.

From January 2023, Mongabay provides a thorough report about Intag’s cloud forest ecosystems, community projects, and resistance to mining. Excerpts from their report below.

---

For nearly 30 years, communities have worked to conserve, restore and defend the cloud forests of the Intag Valley in Ecuador, in what locals say is the longest continuous resistance movement against mining in Latin America. The tropical Andes are considered the world’s most biodiverse hotspot, ranking first in plant, bird, mammal and amphibian diversity; however, less than 15% of Ecuador’s original cloud forests and only 4% of all forests in northwestern Ecuador remain. Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer from Chile, plans to open a mine in the Intag Valley that would destroy primary forest and lie within the buffer area of Cotacachi Cayapas National Park — a plan that experts say would be ecologically devastating and not worth the cost. Communities are using the presence of two threatened frog species — previously thought to be extinct — at the mining site to challenge the project [...].

In the 1960s, to encourage development, the government deemed forested properties with no human occupants “unproductive” and open to land grabbers. In turn, landowners were forced to clear at least 50% of the land to prove it was in use. These agrarian laws led to a flurry of deforestation that lasted into the 1990s. [...]

Pumas (Puma concolor), spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus), mountain tapirs (Tapirus pinchaque), mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata), the critically endangered brown-headed spider monkey (Ateles fusciceps fusciceps), and the colorful plate-billed mountain toucan (Andigena laminirostris) are just a few of the more charismatic threatened species living here. [...]

Our first foray deep into this “terrestrial coral reef” is led by Roberto Castro, a local nature guide, environmental educator, and Zorrilla’s friend and neighbor. [...]

“Here is the Sangre de Drago tree … its red sap [is] a cure for many ailments,” he says. “Here is the Cecropia tree that lives in partnership with the ants.”

He shows us a white flower that shares its nectar with just one bat species and lets go of its seeds in a grand explosion once the nectar is spent. We see the sickle-winged guan (Chamaepetes goudotii), a large ground bird that lays only one, maybe two, precious eggs in a year. The famed Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus) cries out, its song somewhere between that of a parrot and a squealing pig. In the cloud forest, a single leaf is a stage for drama: ants farming aphids, lichens making their slow march against the moss. The forest drips with life.

We stop in a grove of massive elephant ear plants, twice as tall as a person. “These plants tell us water is abundant,” Castro says. The water trail leads us to a 10-meter (33-foot) waterfall. Castro stands in the stream below and pulls out a minuscule underwater castle made from pebbles.

“This is the home of moth larvae,” he shows us. [...]

Zorrilla and other community members started the environmental group Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag (DECOIN) in 1995. [...] DECOIN helped communities establish 38 small-scale forest reserves that, altogether, protect almost 12,000 hectares (nearly 30,000 acres) of forest within the buffer zone of Cotacachi Cayapas National Park. [...]

In Intag, communities are self-defined administrative units, whose leader is nominated by its residents. It’s up to each community to decide how to best protect forests. Most include agreements prohibiting activities such as [...] cattle ranching, mining [...]. Bolaños and fellow community members planted more than 60,000 trees on slopes that were originally forests but had been converted to pasture decades ago. Working for six months each year between 2008 and 2013, dozens of community members planted 22 native species [...].

Intag’s richness aboveground is rivaled by a different kind of wealth below: copper. [...]

In 1996, the Japanese mining company Bishimetals, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation, found evidence of massive copper deposits in the Intag Valley. [...] In 1997, local communities reacted [...]. No one was harmed in the incident, but it was enough to make the company pull out. [...] After Bishimetals retreated in 1997, things calmed down until the Canadian mining company Copper Mesa Corporation (formally Ascendent Copper) entered the scene in 2004. [...] The company tried for five years to develop the project and used paramilitaries and violent force, Zorrilla tells Mongabay. [...] DECOIN helped residents file a lawsuit against both the mining company and the Toronto Stock Exchange for complicity in human rights violations based on Copper Mesa’s actions. [...] [I]n 2010 the Toronto Stock Exchange delisted Copper Mesa Mining Corporation.

---

Now, the communities face the world’s largest copper producer, Chile’s Codelco, which has partnered with Empresa Nacional Minera (ENAMI EP), Ecuador’s state-owned mining company, and invested millions into advanced mining explorations across Intag — in particular within the 5,000-hectare (12,400-acre) mining concession known as Llurimagua. [...]

According to several community members Mongabay spoke to, around 400 military and police officers used force to ensure the presence of Codelco and ENAMI in the mining concession. [...] Javier Ramirez was the president of the Junín community in 2014 when he was arrested for “sabotage and rebellion against the state.” [...] Codelco persisted and set up camp in the Junín Community Reserve, a patch of primary, old-growth forest [...].

Codelco has installed at least 90 drilling platforms within the reserve, digging down to depths of 1,200 meters (3,900 feet). [...]

The U.S. nonprofit Earth Economics [...] valued ecosystem services in Intag, such as water, food, climate regulation, soil retention, pollination, waste treatment, recreation, and scientific research, at $447 million per year in 2011. That’s higher than the projected revenue from copper mining in the region [...].

At the base of a waterfall, we stop to catch our breath, and Zorrilla steps forward. “This is close to where they found the frogs,” he says.

And here enters hope.

Among the dozens of threatened species in the tropical Andes, two have been found in this reserve and nowhere else on Earth: the longnose harlequin toad (Atelopus longirostris) and the Intag resistance rocket frog whose name was chosen through a contest. Both were presumed extinct until they were recently found again in the Junín Community Reserve. [...]

Finding these frogs has given the community a strong argument to try to legally stop mining development [...].

In September 2020, the Intag communities won one of the few cases upholding the rights of nature in the lower court. But the case was overturned in the higher provincial appeals court due to a procedural error. [...] The case is now before a three-member appeals court. After months of delay, a new judge was appointed in December. The new judge wants to have all of the evidence presented again, essentially starting the process over. The next court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23 [2023]. [...]

We speak with Norma Bolаños about Mujer y Medio Ambiente (Women and the Environment), a group of nearly 50 women in Intag who make products out of cabuya, a fiber they produce from the agave plant, and color with natural dyes. [...]

In Cotacachi, we visit the home of Cenaida Guachagmira. She’s 28, the same age as the resistance movement, and has known this fight her whole life. [...] “The companies have their weapons and we have our dignity,” Guachagmira told Re:wild in an interview earlier this year.

---

Headline, images, captions, and all text published by: Liz Kimbrough. “In Ecuador, communities protecting a ‘terrestrial coral reef’ face a mining giant.” Mongabay. 9 January 2023. [Italicized heading and first paragraph in this post added by me.]

[beni75]

Photos and texts: @joelsartore

1-. A bobtail squid at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

2-. A breeding pair of endangered Limosa harlequin frogs at the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project

3-. A brown-throated sloth at the PanAmerican Conservation Association in Gamboa, Panama

4-. A Cape fox at the Plzen Zoo in the Czech Republic

5-. A critically endangered Ridgeway's hawk from my trip to the Dominican Republic

6-. A critically endangered, six-week-old female baby gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo

7-. A endangered Matschie's tree kangaroo at the Lincoln Children's Zoo

8-. A federally endangered yellow-footed rock wallaby at Omaha Zoo's Wildlife Safari Park

9-. A fennec fox named Sophie at Chattanooga Zoo

10-. A four-toed jerboa at the Plzen Zoo in the Czech Republic

11-. A fruit bat from Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea

12-. A Gambian epauletted fruit bat at the Plzen Zoo in the Czech Republic

13-. A grizzly bear in fall color at Denali National Park, in Alaska's interior

14-. A horse at the Sandal Ranch near Howes, South Dakota

15-. a kinkajou at the New York State Zoo. This animal is naive to Central and South America

16-. A little owl from the Budapest Zoo

17-. Polar bears at the Columbus Zoo

18-. Rajah, an endangered male, white Bengal tiger at Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo

19-. Ridgeway's hawk

20-. The view of the Palouse hills as seen from Steptoe Butte in eastern Washington

21-. Twin three month old red pandas at the Lincoln Children's Zoo

22-. a freshwater stingray lies partially hidden in the sand of a flooded country road in Brazil's Pantanal

23-. A king penguin rookery from South Georgia Island's St. Andrews Bay

24-. Nabire, one of just five northern white rhinos left on the planet. RIP

25-. jaguarundi

26-. A 1-year-old fossa as the Omaha Zoo. This is Madagascar's largest mammalian predator, and its numbers are declining in the wild

27-. a 24 day-old bengal slow loris at the Endagered Primate Rescue Center in Vietnam. Is named Captain Hook, because he is missing a hand

28-. baby viscacha stretches out after a nap with mom in Chile's Atacama Desert

29-. A black swallowtail butterfly, wich is native to Nebraska, at the Lincoln Children's Zoo

[cupidthewriter]

🖊️ + Briar

Baby Briar! eee!

🦋🥀🌹

Briar is the second heir and only son of King Gloxinia. He is not actually an heir, because the tree chooses the next king, so his title is "the young prince" or "the little prince." This continues into adulthood.

During the Battle 3000 years ago,, Briar escaped their family quarters trying to help his mother, saw some trauma, and got so scared he awakened his ability and ran off into the forest where he fell asleep for 3000 years.

He woke up during the battle of Liones, where Helbram used the roots of the Sacred Tree to fight Harlequin. It disturbed the underground of Liones, which is where Gloxinia's forest used to be (we know this bc of the Gowther Nadja episode). The tree he was in broke, Briar woke up, and eventually was reunited with Gerheade. He had a very difficult time accepting that his parents and big sister were gone.

Briar is always drawn with a red flower in his hair. Usually a poppy, sometimes carnations and roses. His name is a reference to Sleeping beauty, who also had a very very long sleep.

Baby Briar

he has the ability to grow and control plants, but every plant he produces is poisonous. Even if he grows a plant that is generally non poisonous, it will be poisonous because he grew it.

He's very clever. Think Baby houdini. he has escaped his nursery enough times for it to be concerning.

this is because Briar can float and this makes escape much easier.

His favorite animal is a frog. He once managed to lead several dozen into his room to make them his pets and his parents only realized that when one of them escaped.

he likes to help Faye get around, because she cannot see

his favorite food is berries because he can get them by himself.

his tantrums are bad. If he's really very upset, he will pull on his ears.

Thanks to Sage's genetics, Briar can eat poison and be fine which is fantastic because he's three and they eat paint if youre not careful

Older Briar

as an adult he has his own area of the forest and is fairly... uh, notorious among the other fairies because he has his father's temper and can only grow plants unsuitable for agriculture.

so, some fairies refer to him as "the Dark Prince," but he doesn't like that name.

His favorite plant is his giant flytraps-- he treats them like pets and they love him

he actually engages in trade with humans, supplying them medicinal resources (such as poppies for pain management)

he has large wings that resemble a blue morpho's and are about 1/2- 2/3s the size of Gloxinia's.

He has a positive relationship with King Harlequin, Queen Diane, and their children, though he doesn't usually like them coming into his space (mostly because it is dangerous)

He created a memorial for his parents out of a cottage they once used for Faye and Sage (safehouse). It was outside of the forest and still happened to exist.

[bestfrogbracket]

American Green Tree Frog: Naturally found in the Southeastern United States, they prefer swamps and densely foliaged lakesides as habitats. Certain coastal populations, however, have developed a tolerance to moderate salinity in water thanks to different processes that regulate osmosis. Males form large choruses during mating season, and as a result are forced to modify their calls in frequency and duration to stand out from the others and draw attention from females. In some areas, they even compete with other species such as the invasive Osteopilus septentrionalis and modify their call to be more clearly heard. Females prefer lower-frequency calls, so if a male notices that his is distinctly higher-frequency than others in the area, he may forego calling altogether and attempt to ambush a female instead.

Purple Harlequin Toad: Native to French Guiana, it was found to likely belong to the Guiana Shield clade of harlequin toads through genetic testing done in 2020. Different populations separated by location vary significantly in size, with females from the Sophie region being smaller than males – contrary to all other populations of this species. Unfortunately, they are threatened by local logging and the chytrid fungus.

[stickyfrogs]

Hanging Out With Friends at the Frog Pond at Kubah National Park, Borneo!

Four-lined tree frogs (Polypedates leucomystax), Harlequin Tree Frog (Rhacophorus pardalis) and Giant River Frog (Limnonectes leporinus)!

[magicwingslisten]

Come take up your Hats, and away let us haste To the Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast. The Trumpeter, Gad-fly, has summon'd the Crew, And the Revels are now only waiting for you.

So said little Robert, and pacing along, His merry Companions came forth in a Throng. And on the smooth Grass, by the side of a Wood, Beneath a broad Oak that for Ages had stood,

Saw the Children of Earth, and the Tenants of Air, For an Evening's Amusement together repair. And there came the Beetle, so blind and so black, Who carried the Emmet, his Friend, on his Back.

And there was the Gnat and the Dragon-fly too, With all their Relations, Green, Orange, and Blue. And there came the Moth, with his Plumage of Down, And the Hornet in Jacket of Yellow and Brown;

Who with him the Wasp, his Companion, did bring, But they promis'd, that Evening, to lay by their Sting. And the sly little Dormouse crept out of his Hole, And brought to the Feast his blind Brother, the Mole.

And the Snail, with his Horns peeping out of his Shell, Came from a great Distance, the Length of an Ell. A Mushroom their Table, and on it was laid A Water-dock Leaf, which a Table-cloth made.

The Viands were various, to each of their Taste, And the Bee brought her Honey to crown the Repast. Then close on his Haunches, so solemn and wise, The Frog from a Corner, look'd up to the Skies.

And the Squirrel well pleas'd such Diversions to see, Mounted high over Head, and look'd down from a Tree. Then out came the Spider, with Finger so fine, To shew his Dexterity on the tight Line.

From one Branch to another, his Cobwebs he slung, Then quick as an Arrow he darted along, But just in the Middle, — Oh! shocking to tell, From his Rope, in an Instant, poor Harlequin fell.

Yet he touch'd not the Ground, but with Talons outspread, Hung suspended in Air, at the End of a Thread, Then the Grasshopper came with a Jerk and a Spring, Very long was his Leg, though but short was his Wing;

He took but three Leaps, and was soon out of Sight, Then chirp'd his own Praises the rest of the Night. With Step so majestic the Snail did advance, And promis'd the Gazers a Minuet to dance.

But they all laugh'd so loud that he pull'd in his Head, And went in his own little Chamber to Bed. Then, as Evening gave Way to the Shadows of Night, Their Watchman, the Glow-worm, came out with a Light.

Then Home let us hasten, while yet we can see, For no Watchman is waiting for you and for me. So said little Robert, and pacing along, His merry Companions returned in a Throng.

William Roscoe

[wikimediauncommons]

file: Harlequin Tree Frog, Sarolangun, Jambi, 29032014.jpg

[herpsandbirds]

Harlequin Flying Frog (Rhacophorus padarlis), family Rhacophoridae, Peninsular Malaysia

Flying frogs are also called gliding frogs, and sometimes just tree frogs.

Flying frogs glide or parachute from tree to tree using their large webbed feet.

Photograph by Chan Yik Khan

[darwin1601]

Hier einige der ca. drei Dutzend in Sabah heimischen Froscharten - File-eared Tree Frog/Kamm Ruderfrosch - Harlequin Tree Frog/Rhacophorus pardalis, der Einzige gleitfähige Frosch den ich finden konnte. - Bornean Sticky Frogs/Kalophrynus meizon

[froggyfroo-art]

Considering I only discovered this awareness day this afternoon, I'm amazed I managed to get something drawn in time! Have some appropriately hued frogs. Happy International Asexuality Day!

From left to right: Black Toad (Anaxyrus exsul), Grey Tree Frog (Dryophytes versicolor), Moonshine Splashback Poison Frog (Adelphobates galactonotus), Purple Harlequin Toad (Atelopus barbotini)

Version without text below the cut!

[ID: A digital drawing of four frogs in a row in the colours of the asexuality flag, from left to right being black, grey, white and purple. Above and below the frogs there is handwritten text that reads "1st International Asexuality Day" with a little drawing of the asexuality pride flag. End ID.]

[ID: A version of the first image without the text and with the ace pride flag moved into a free space above the frogs. End ID.]