Telmatobius macrostomus

The Andes smooth frog or Lake Junin frog  (Telmatobius macrostomus) is a frog.  It lives in Peru, near Lake Junin and in the high places of Rio Mantaro.

Home
This frog spends most of its time in water. It lives in lakes like Lake Junin and in streams, canals, and rivers and other wet places.  This frog lives best in streams with no animals that want to eat it, for example rainbow trout. Scientists saw this frog between 2585 and 4500 meters above sea level.  People found the frog in Lake Junin, and brought it to the Mantaro River.

Scientists have seen this frog in some protected parks: Junín National Reserve, the Historic Sanctuary of Chacamarca, and the National Sanctuary of Huayllay. They think it might live in Nor Yauyos-Cochas Landscape Reserve too.

Young
This frog has young in places where the water does not move fast and where there is silt at the bottom of the water and underwater plants.

Diet
This frog eats snails, mayflies, and other animals.

Danger
Scientists say this frog is in danger of dying out. People change the places where the frog lives to make farms and other things, too much algae in the water can all make it hard for the frog to live there. People also dig dirt and plants out of the streams so that boats can go through, and this is bad for the frog. Acids and other bad chemicals in the water can kill this frog because it is easy for chemicals to go through the frog's skin. Scientists found the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis on other frogs in Telmatobius, so they think the disease it causes,  chytridiomycosis, can kill this frog too. People also catch this frog to eat. They caught so many that it is now hard to find the frogs in the wild.

First papers

References

Category:Frogs of South America