Rain Forests and Cloud Forests

  This frog is ugly during the day, so I had to work at night in the Amazon rain forests of Ecuador to capture his best colors. Working at night has its hazards, though. When I was about to photograph this frog, I heard a rasping noise coming from my camera. I recognized it as the sound of an angry Conga ant, an inch-long giant with a powerful sting. It was on the eyepiece of my camera, and I almost put it in my eye!

 

 

  In Monteverde, Costa Rica, I once witnessed a mass mating of thousands of yellow frogs (not the same as the frog above). They came out of nowhere, mated , and disappeared within a few hours. Only the males were bright yellow, and they only held that color during the mating frenzy. If they were disturbed they changed back to brown in a matter of seconds. This is what every square meter of their swamp looked like while they were mating.

Below are a mating couple only mildly disturbed by my presence; the second photo below shows the male uncomfortable about being watched, beginning to change to brown. I guess he wanted a little privacy.

 

 

 

 

 

Below are three more tree frog species. The first one is tiny, less than an inch long. The second one is bigger, several inches in length, while the third one is another tiny thing about an inch long.

 

 

 

 

Rain Forests and Cloud Forests