- Chile
- The male takes the fertilised eggs from a moist nest into his vocal sac where they hatch into tadpoles after 8 days. Once he starts to feel them wriggling, he carefully transports them to a stream and regurgitates them there so that they can metamorphose. This is a process called mouth-brooding.
- In its close relative, the Vulnerable Darwin’s frog (Rhinoderma darwinii) from Chile and Argentina, tadpoles mature into froglets within the male’s vocal sacs.
- This species has been found near slowly running streams in wet temperate mix forest and bogs at elevations of 50 to 500 meters. It lives on the ground, often in the leaf litter of the forest floor.
- The Chile Darwin frog was fairly regularly seen until around 1978. Since then it seems to have disappeared and may now be extinct.
- The destruction of the native vegetation through the establishment of pine plantations and human settlement has probably had some impact on this species.
- The fungal disease chytridiomycosis could be a possible cause of the species’ decline. This may explain its sudden disappearance, which can be a symptomatic affect of this pathogenic fungus. However, chytrid has not previously been reported from Chile.
- Further survey work is an urgent priority to attempt to determine whether the Chile Darwin frog still survives in the wild.
- Chytrid monitoring of amphibians within the range of the Chile Darwin frog, since this could potentially pose a threat to other amphibians within this habitat.
Image of close relative, Darwin's frog (Rhinoderma darwinii) - no images are available of a living Chile Darwin's frog
EDGE would like to carry out field surveys to determine whether the species still survives in the wild.
The Chile Darwin's frog was fairly regularly seen until around 1978, since when it seems to have disappeared, and the species my now be extinct. This species, which lives in the leaf litter on the forest floor, has an unusual method of parental care; the male takes the fertilised eggs from the nest into his vocal sac where they hatch into tadpoles after approximately eight days. When he starts to feel the newly hatched tadpoles wriggling, the male carries them to a stream where he expels the young. Here they complete metamorphosis.
The cause of the decline in this species is not well understood; suspected threats include destruction of native vegetation through the establishment of pine plantations and expansing human settlement, and the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.
EDGE aims to carry out essential field survey work to establish the current status of the Chile Darwin's frog, the species' distribution, and which threats are acting on the species, including monitoring for chytrid. All of this is required to feed into the formulation of a Conservation Action Plan for the Chile Darwin's frog.