The Costa Rica brook frog or red-eyed stream frog (''Duellmanohyla uranochroa'') is a species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

in the family

Hylidae Hylidae is a wide-ranging family of frogs commonly referred to as "tree frogs and their allies". However, the hylids include a diversity of frog species, many of which do not live in trees, but are terrestrial or semiaquatic. Taxonomy and s ...

found in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are tropical moist lowland

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s, subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

s, and

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

s between 70 and 1740 meters above sea level.

Appearance

The skin of dorsum is leaf-green in color. The ventrum and neck are bright yellow. The ventral parts of the legs are dull yellow. A yellow-white stripe reaches from the lip down each side of the body to the groin. The iris is bright red with horizontal pupils. The female frog is larger than the male frog, with larger tympanums.

Behavior

This frog is

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

. It has been seen at night near mountain streams. During the day, they have been seen hiding in

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

plants. The frogs breed in May and June. The male frog's call sounds like "boop boop boop boop," but individual frogs and frogs in different geographic locations can sound slightly different. The female frog lays eggs in pools of water with

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

y bottoms.

Threats

As of 2013, This species is classified as vulnerable by the IUCN. Declines and local extinctions have been reported for populations (referred to as ''Hyla uranochroa'') within the Monteverde region of Costa Rica's Cordillera de Tilaran, synchronous with the decline of 24 (from a total of 53) other amphibian species during 1990.Pounds, J. A., Fogden, M. P. L., and Campbell, J. H. (1999). ''Biological response to climate change on a tropical mountain.'' Nature, 398(6728), 611-615.

References

Duellmanohyla Endangered fauna of North America Amphibians of Costa Rica Amphibians of Panama Amphibians described in 1875 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Hylinae-stub