If a disease wave is moving eastward through the mountains, it will hit El Cope in a couple of years. A valley in El Cope. For now, the frogs at El Cope seem secure in their mountain sanctuary. The little brown frogs with the racing stripes, the ones that have vanished from Fortuna, sing here all day long, the white vocal sacs on their tiny throats bulging in and out, like lights blinking. You can walk up this stream and find hundreds of species of frogs, including a beautiful rare one called the golden frog - not to be confused with the now extinct golden toad.
Golden frogs hear through their skins, and communicate with each other by waving their front feet.
These frogs, of course, have no idea what's in store for them. But for a human observer, it's hard to look at this stream, knowing that in a few years it, too, may be empty. Funding for our series on vanishing frogs was provided by the listeners of Minnesota Public Radio, and by a grant from the Society of Environmental Journalists. Special thanks to researcher Karen Lips and field assistant Liese Greensfelder for their help with the Panama segment. Photographs by Liese Greensfelder.