Panamanian golden frog

Golden frogs eat tiny bugs.

They look for food in the daytime, using their big eyes.

Panamanian golden frogs eat mostly insects and other small invertebrates. They are active during the day and use their eyes to spot their prey.

In zoos, adult golden frogs eat fruit flies, bean beetles and crickets, and tiny young froglets eat springtails.

What a golden frog eats seems to change its skin. Scientists think wild golden frogs got their poison through the insects they ate. Zoo frogs eat different insects and lose their poison, so keepers and scientists can handle them safely.

The species is predominantly insectivorous, feeding on insects and other small invertebrates; it is diurnal and hunts visually (Smithsonian). In zoos, adults are fed mostly fruit flies, bean beetles and crickets, and young froglets eat springtails.

Diet matters for its chemistry. The Smithsonian notes that wild frogs get their toxins from what they eat, so zoo frogs fed different insects are safe for keepers to handle; the IUCN adds that toxicity is reduced or lost in captivity and may come from a symbiotic microbial pathway linked to diet.

Golden frogs do not call much like other frogs.

Instead, they wave their arms! A female waves back if she likes a male.

Most male frogs and toads call to attract females. Golden frogs mostly use body language instead. Males twitch their legs and heads, stamp the ground, hop in place and wave their arms.

A female waves back if she is interested. Males also perch on rocks by the stream and wave to keep other males out of their patch. Scientists call this arm-waving semaphore, like signaling with flags.

Instead of relying on calls, males use visual displays: leg and head twitching, stamping, hopping in place and arm-waving, to which receptive females may respond by waving back (Smithsonian). The IUCN cites observations of males perching on rocks and defending territories visually with this semaphore behavior.

Golden frogs are active during the day, and in the wild, frogs infected with chytrid fungus were seen basking in the sun, a behavioral fever that may have helped them manage the infection for a while.

A sickness caused by a tiny fungus made wild golden frogs disappear.

No one has seen one in the wild for many years. Zoos are keeping golden frogs safe so they can go home one day.

The IUCN lists the Panamanian golden frog as critically endangered and possibly extinct in the wild. The last wild golden frog was seen in 2009. Some were taken from the wild to be sold as pets, and then a disease caused by the chytrid fungus swept through the streams.

Since 1999 Project Golden Frog has bred golden frogs in North American zoos, about 50 zoos and aquariums in the United States show them to visitors, and Panama has its own rescue centers. Researchers are working on ways to fight the fungus so frogs can return to the wild.

The IUCN assessed Atelopus zeteki in 2018 (published 2019) as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct in the Wild), citing a decline of more than 80 percent over ten years caused by chytridiomycosis combined with pet-trade collection. The last wild individual was seen in 2009; extensive monitoring has found no surviving subpopulation, and any that remains is thought to hold fewer than 50 mature frogs. Habitat loss, sedimentation from road building and water pollution add to the threats.

Project Golden Frog has bred the species in North America since 1999; the Maryland Zoo manages the captive animals in Species Survival Plans (about 2,000 adults in the mid-2000s, a count that includes the closely related Atelopus varius), and about 50 U.S. zoos and aquariums display it. In Panama, the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center and the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project hold further populations while research seeks ways to control the fungus.