Rhinoderma darwinii

Darwin's frog, Darwin's toad, the southern Darwin's frog, or the mouth-breeding frog  (Rhinoderma darwinii) is a frog.   It lives in Chile and Argentina.

Body
Adult male frogs are 22-28 mm long from nose to rear end and adult female frogs are 25-31 mm long. These frogs can be different colors. The skin of the frog's back can be brown, red-brown, light brown, light green, dark green, or any of these colors in a pattern. The frog's belly is black and white.

Home
People find this frog on the dead leaves on the ground in forests and in wet places inside forests.  Scientists saw this frog between 0 and 1350 meters above sea level.

Scientists saw the frog in many protected parks: Lanín National Park and Nahuel Huapi National Park in Argentina and many more in Chile.

Young

These frogs are different from other frogs because the male frog keeps the young in his body. The female frog lays eggs and the male frog watches the eggs. Once the tadpole is big enough to move inside its egg, the male frog puts the eggs in his mouth. The eggs do not go to the frog's stomach. They go to the frog's vocal sac, the organ he uses to make sounds. The eggs hatch inside the male frog's vocal sac and the tadpoles stay there until they become small frogs.  It takes 50-70 days for them to do this. Scientists have seen as many as 19 tadpoles in one male frog's sac at one time. The frog's vocal sac makes thick fluid that the tadpoles eat. These tadpoles do not have gills.  Because the tadpoles never exist outside the parent's body, scientists say this frog is a direct developer.

Danger
Scientists from the IUCN and from Chile say this frog is in danger of dying out. People cut down too many trees at the same time to make tree farms and places for animals to eat grass.  Fires and volcanoes can also change this frog's home. Climate change could hurt this frog, but scientists are not sure. The fungal disease chytridiomycosis can hurt this frog.

Two groups of scientists have taken some frogs out of their home to live in zoos: One team is from the Universidad de Concepción working with Zoo Leipzig and the other team is from Zoológico Nacional de Chile working with the San Antonio Zoo.

References

Category:Frogs of South America