Splendid Poison Frog

The splendid poison frog (Oophaga speciosa) is endemic to the mountains of western Panama, where it inhabits tropical montane forest. Its restricted range makes it especially vulnerable to environmental disturbances.

Wild populations have been devastated by a combination of habitat destruction from deforestation and the spread of chytrid fungal disease, which has decimated amphibian populations across Central America. These combined pressures have pushed the species to the brink of extinction in the wild.

Like other members of the genus Oophaga, the female transports tadpoles to small pools of water in plant axils and then returns periodically to feed them unfertilized eggs. This specialized reproductive strategy, known as trophic egg feeding, gives the genus its name.

Chytridiomycosis, caused by the Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis pathogen, infects amphibians' skin and disrupts their ability to absorb water and electrolytes, often leading to cardiac arrest. It has caused catastrophic declines in frog species across Panama and other parts of Central America since the late 1990s.