Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, Costa Rica
Here’s another one inspired by the Discovery Channel’s “Life” series. In the episode “Challenges of Life,” they highlight the strawberry poison dart frog and the Herculean effort the mother goes through to ensure that her young survive. She carries each of her tadpoles on her back, one by one, from the rainforest floor to the tops of trees — big, jungle trees — in search of suitable nurseries (in small pools of water that form in bromeliad leaves). Each tadpole needs its own nursery so that they don’t eat each other. Then the mother goes from nursery to nursery dropping unfertilized eggs into the water for the tadpoles to eat (apparently it’s good eatin’ for a young tadpole and they need more than just one, so the mother must continually return to each tree and nursery to drop another, and then another). She pretty much is traveling constantly while the tadpoles are growing. The first time I was in Costa Rica I saw this happening with a tadpole on the mother’s back but wasn’t able to get any good shots. Here’s a strawberry poison dart frog from my second trip to Costa Rica. There are many different varieties and colorations of this frog — this one being the appropriately named “blue jeans” morph.
wow! that’s amazing. these frogs look so cool too!
I have missed your frog shots, even on a Wednesday they are appreciated!
OOh. Is his poisons gonna hurt me??
I suppose one should not lick it.