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Lemur Leaf Frog: 100th Most Endangered Frog On ZSL’s EDGE List Of Endangered Amphibians

The Lemur leaf frog's (Hylomantis lemur) Conservation Attention is listed as good.

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The Lemur leaf frog (Hylomantis lemur), a diminutive little treefrog found only on Colombia, Costa, Rica and Panama, is the 100th most endangered amphibian on the Zoological Society of London’s EDGE List Of Endangered Amphibians.

The frog is bright green during the day, camouflaging itself with the green of the subtropical and tropical moist and lowland forests in which it lives, and then turns brown at night, when it hunts. It lays up to 20 eggs at a time, depositing them under leaves that jut out over the water, where the tadpoles drop into about a week after the eggs are laid.

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The Lemur leaf frog can also be found in moist montane forests and freshwater marshes. The species is threatened by habitat loss as well as the Chytridiomycosis fungus caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. It is a small frog, with males measuring 30-35mm in length, while the females measure 40-45mm in length.


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The frog has lost more than 80 percent of its population in Panama, and has been in decline in Costa Rica. The frog is still abundant in lower elevations  of the central and eastern portions of Panama. The frog is subject of a conservation breeding program at the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Centre, where tadpoles are reared and then dropped into artificial ponds to grow out for release into the wild. The Lemur leaf frog is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Conservation Attention is listed as good.