Darwin's frog

Range and habitat

Darwin's frog is found in Chile and Argentina at elevations as high as 1350 meters above sea level. R. Darwinii is mainly found in the Valdivian Temperate Rain Forest that covers parts of both Chile and Argentina. In Chile, its range extends from Concepción Province to Palena Province and in Argentina from Neuquén Province and Río Negro Province.

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

Diet and breeding

The diet of R. Darwinii's consists of detritivore, herbivore, and carnivore invertebrates. The percentage at that carnivorous invertebrates are consumed is lower than herbivore or detritivore invertebrates.

This difference can be explained because spiders are the predominant type of carnivore invertebrate prey that R. Darwinii encounters. In the habitats where R. Darwinii have been observed, there seem to be relatively high percentages of herbivore invertebrates. The second hypothesis is that foster fathers can exhibit that they have had past breeding success by brooding tadpoles that aren't theirs.

In crisis

R. Darwinii is currently classified as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This male brooding may make R. Darwinii unique among extant frog species, as the only other frog that has this behavior is the R. Rufum (northern Darwin's frog), that has been presumed extinct since 1981. Darwin's frog has undergone significant population declines due to habitat loss and degradation, largely from conversion of native forests to tree plantations.

Since 2018, the species is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. A 2013 study reported results of a population survey conducted from 2008 to 2012, that found the species at just 36 of 223 previously recorded habitat sites, with small populations at those sites.

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

Darwin's frog 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 Darwin's frog, Wikidata item Q586567. 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.