Lehmann’s poison frog

Lehmann's poison frog is one of Colombia's most striking and rarest poison dart frogs. It has a deep black base colour with bright stripes or spots in red, orange or yellow – a typical warning signal for its toxicity. It is endemic to a highly fragmented area on the Pacific coast of Colombia and is only known to occur in two small areas in the departments of Valle del Cauca and Chocó. Its total range covers less than 10 km². The animals inhabit humid primary and secondary forests at altitudes between 600 and 1200 metres and usually stay on the ground or in low branches.
As with other Oophaga species, Lehmann's poison frog engages in intensive brood care: at the end of the rainy season, the male actively calls for mating, guards the fertilised clutch and carries the hatched tadpoles individually to water-filled plant structures such as bromeliad funnels. The female feeds the tadpoles there at intervals of three to six days with unfertilised nutrient eggs. Metamorphosis into the adult form finally takes place after about two to three months.
According to the IUCN, Lehmann's poison frog is considered critically endangered. The main causes are habitat loss, severe fragmentation and illegal removal for the pet trade. At the same time, the complex breeding care required by this species makes artificial rearing considerably more difficult. This made the success all the more significant when, in 2023, 29 animals bred in captivity were released into the wild for the first time as part of the Amphibian Survival Project supported by Zurich Zoo. The release was carried out in collaboration with Cali Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society in an area where the species was originally native but had already become locally extinct.

Distribution