WEEKLY MAGAZINE
PROTOTYPE
Ecuador Informa
← Back to the weekly magazine

Standard

A Tiny Jewel of Ecuador's Forests Is Already in Danger

A newly described poison frog has two dramatically different colour patterns, and researchers are protecting its location from wildlife traffickers.

Editorial line illustration for “A Tiny Jewel of Ecuador's Forests Is Already in Danger.”
Editorial illustration for “A Tiny Jewel of Ecuador's Forests Is Already in Danger.”Original editorial line illustration created for Ecuador Informa with OpenAI image generation.

Smaller than a fingernail, a newly described Ecuadorian poison frog has astonished scientists with its brilliant colours—and raised concerns about whether it can survive in the wild.

Named Excidobates perplexus, the frog lives in the forests of Azuay and Morona Santiago. One population is bright scarlet and black, while another is green and yellow. Their appearances are so different that researchers needed genetic analysis to confirm they belong to the same species.

The frog was formally described on October 2, but an October 21 interview with researcher Juan Carlos Sánchez-Nivicela revealed more about the discovery. He described finding the tiny animals among damp leaves and tree roots, guided partly by their faint calls, which can resemble insects.

The discovery comes with a warning. Mining, forest destruction and illegal wildlife collecting threaten the frog's limited habitat. Researchers have recommended classifying it as Critically Endangered and have withheld precise location information to discourage traffickers.