Elegant stubfoot toad

Appearance

Males measure 21–23 mm (0.83–0.91 in) and females 31–35 mm (1.2–1.4 in) in snout–vent length. Dorsal colouration is from dark olive green to bright yellow. Well defined black spots or blotches are always present on the back and on the limbs.

It was described by George Albert Boulenger in 1882 based on a specimen collected by Edward Whymper.

Range and habitat

The elegant stubfoot toad or Pacific jambato frog is a toad in the family Bufonidae found in lowlands and Andean slopes of northwest Ecuador to 1,140 m (3,740 ft) asl and on the Gorgona Island, off southwest coast of Colombia.

It is very common on the Gorgona Island, but has seriously declined in Ecuador, possibly because of chytridiomycosis.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Breeding

Calling males and egg sites define most frog field work. A species known from one ridge is as narrow as it sounds.

Eggs and damp skin make amphibians quick to vanish from a drained wetland or a forest stripped of litter.

In crisis

Only one known population remains in Ecuador, in the Esmeraldas Province, and a captive colony has been established for conservation purposes. The species is also threatened by habitat loss.

Chytrid fungus, collection, and wet-forest loss are the usual pressures on frogs with a high threat category.

Elegant stubfoot toad is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Elegant stubfoot toad, Wikidata item Q27688905. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.