IUCN Red List Category: EN B1ab(iii) (Published 2013-07-12)
2013-07-12 00:00:00 UTC
Taxonomy
| Animalia | Chordata | Vertebrata | Amphibia | Anura | Hylidae | Agalychnis | Agalychnis annae |
Taxonomic notes: Section empty
Geographic Range
This species occurs in the Cordillera de Talamanca, Cordillera de Tilarán and Cordillera Central, Costa Rica, at 600-1,650 m. While it is thought to have disappeared from much of its range, recent surveys suggest that the population has recovered or persisted in parts of the Central Valley. A single individual was recently recorded in western Panama, but additional survey work is needed to determine if a breeding population is present (Hertz et al. 2012). Its extent of occurrence (EOO) is estimated at 2,293 km2.
Habitat
This is a nocturnal species that is known from premontane moist and wet forests and rainforest habitats. Remnant subpopulations in the Central Valley typically occur in riparian areas near heavily polluted streams, shade-grown coffee plantations and gardens. While the species tolerates some habitat disturbance, it appears to rely on isolated green spaces within the urban landscape of the Central Valley in Costa Rica (V. Acosta pers. comm. 2013). This species typically breeds at ponds where eggs are oviposited on vegetation overhanging the water.
Population
It has disappeared from pristine areas since the late 1980s, including protected areas such as Parque Nacional Tapantí and the Reserva Biológica Monteverde, where it was once common. It remains common only in some areas of the Central Valley. A single individual has recently been recorded in Talamanca near the Costa Rica-Panama border (Hertz et al. 2012), but it is uncertain if this record constitutes a range expansion. Remnant subpopulations in the Central Valley are highly fragmented by urban development and are experiencing ongoing habitat loss associated with the loss of urban green spaces (Acosta 2013). For the purposes of this assessment we consider the population to be severely fragmented based on the assumption that the species’ ability to disperse is limited given its breeding biology and where it is currently found, and assuming that most of the individuals are found in fragmented habitat patches.
Threats
Despite this species' apparent tolerance to habitat degradation, it is nonetheless subject to factors that have caused amphibian fauna to decline in certain locations in Central America, in particular the fungal disease, chytridiomycosis. Remnant subpopulations in the Central Valley are highly fragmented by urban development and are experiencing ongoing habitat loss associated with the loss of urban green spaces, such as riparian vegetation, gardens and shaded coffee plantations (Acosta 2013). This species is also found in the international pet trade.
Comments
According with Acosta 2013 (http://www.ambientico.una.ac.cr/pdfs/ambientico/232.pdf) this species, even when has a some populations that are increasing in several localities, the urban ones would be affected by habitat fragmentation inside the GAM (Great Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica) due to the lost of shaded coffee fields, riparian forests and ausence of swamps or wetlands in the city. During the 70's and 80's, when this frogs still had a healthy population, those kinds of crops where the most common cover in this matrix , but since the middle of 90's and 2000's most of the green places were changed by builidings. Now, they are limited to the riparian forests (that also are polluted), indeed the gardens are in extintion in some areas of the GAM.
Specific Threats
- 8.1.2 Named species
- 1.1 Housing & urban areas
- 1.2 Commercial & industrial areas
- 5.1.1 Intentional use (species is the target)
Conservation Actions
It has disappeared from protected areas in Costa Rica where it had previously been recorded. Conservation efforts should focus on protecting urban green spaces in the Central Valley where the species is known to still occur. Monitoring of remnant subpopulations is needed to determine population trends as well as prevalence of chytrid infections. It is listed on CITES Appendix II.
Red List Rationale
Listed as Endangered because its extent of occurrence (EOO) is estimated at 2,293 km2, its population is considered to be severely fragmented by urban development, and because even though the species exhibits a degree of tolerance to disturbed habitats, there is ongoing loss of essential habitat for this species’ survival, such as riparian forest and urban green spaces in the Central Valley of Costa Rica.
Bibliography
- Acosta, V. 2013. Pérdida de hábitats y biodiversidad desvanecida en la ciudad de Heredia (Costa Rica). Ambientico 232-233: 64-74.
- Duellman, W.E. 2001. The Hylid Frogs of Middle America. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Ithaca, New York, USA.
- Hertz, A., Lotzkat, S. Carrizo, A., Ponce, M., Köhler, G. and Streit, B.. 2012. Field notes on findings of threatened amphibian species in the central mountain range of western Panama. Amphibian and Reptile Conservation 6(2): 9-30.
- Pounds, J.A., Fogden, M.P.L., Savage, J.M. and Gorman, G.C. 1997. Tests of null models for amphibian declines on a tropical mountain. Conservation Biology 11: 1307-1322.
- Proy, C. 1993. Beobachtungen zur Biologie und Erfahrungen bei der Erhaltung und Nachzucht von Agalychnis annae (Duellman, 1963). Herpetofauna: 27-35.
- Proy, C. 2000. Unterschiedliche Temperaturverlaeufe und kuenstliche Beregnung zur Stimulierung der Paarung bei zwei Greiffroeschen (Phyllomedusa lemur and Agalychnis annae). Herpetofauna: 29-34.
- Savage, J.M. 2002. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: A Herpetofauna between two Continents, between two Seas. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
- Villa, J. and Townsend, D.S. 1983. Viable frog eggs eaten by phorid fly larvae. Journal of Herpetology: 278-281.
Comments