From the GreenTracks Amazon Herping Tour 10/06 - 10/13, 2018
from Dante Fenolio
Notes from the Amazon No222: Parental care is something that most people associate with mammals - particularly humans. But in all truth, parental care can be found across a broad spectrum of wildlife including amphibians. Among the amphibians, poison frogs are notorious for their parental care. In many species, eggs are deposited on the forest floor until they hatch. Depending on the species, either the male or the female allows the tadpoles to squirm onto their backs. The tadpoles literally glue themselves to the back of the adult using glue glands in their lips. The adult frog then carries the tadpoles to some remote water source - often plant held waters (phytotelmata) such as bromeliad axils or water filled tree holes. The adult crawls into the water and the water soluble glue dissolves. The tadpoles then move into the private pool where they will develop. In some species, the female returns to feed infertile food eggs - providing nourishment to the developing tadpoles throughout their larval period. This is a Red-backed Poison Frog (Ranitomeya reticulata) photographed sleeping at night in the low foliage with two tadpoles glued to its back, Amazon River, Loreto, Peru - October 2018.
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