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This species is known from only one site: Granjas del Padre Luna, Municipio de Alban, western slope of the Cordillera Oriental, in Cundinamarca Department, Colombia, at 2,090 m asl. Its range, while not quantified, is not expected to be above 100 km².

This species was known to be abundant up until around 1995. Six subsequent visits and some 80 hours of searching during the course of 2002-2003 turned up only one tadpole, perhaps indicative of a serious decline.

It occurs in streams in cloud forest. It also reproduces in rapid streams.

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The most serious risk to this species is chytridiomycosis, which has had a devastating impact on other high-altitude species of Atelopus. Habitat loss is also a major threat to this species, mainly caused by agricultural expansion and human settlement.

• 9.3.4 Type Unknown/Unrecorded
• 2.1.2 Small-holder farming
• 8.1.2 Named species
• 11.5 Other impacts
• 1.1 Housing & urban areas
• 5.3.5 Motivation Unknown/Unrecorded
• 2.3.2 Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming

This species is not known to occur in any protected area, and there is an urgent need for improved habitat protection at its only known locality. Further survey work is required to determine the current population status of this species. Given the probable threat of chytridiomycosis, disease management and captive-breeding programmes might be required.

• 1.2 Resource & habitat protection
• 1.1 Site/area protection
• 3.2 Species recovery
• 3.4.1 Captive breeding/artificial propagation

Listed as Critically Endangered because of a drastic population decline, estimated to be more than 80% over the last ten years, inferred from the apparent disappearance of most of the population (probably due to chytridiomycosis); and because its Area of Occupancy is less than 10 km2, all individuals are in a single location, and there is continuing decline in the number of mature individuals, and in the quality of its habitat.

• La Marca, E., Lips, K.R., Lötters, S., Puschendorf, R., Ibáñez, R., Rueda-Almonacid, J.V., Schulte, R., Marty, C., Castro, F., Manzanilla-Puppo, J., Garcia-Perez, J.E., Toral, E., Bolaños, F., Chaves, G., Pounds, J.A. and Young, B. 2005. Catastrophic population declines and extinctions in Neotropical harlequin frogs (Bufonidae: Atelopus). Biotropica: 190-201.
• Lötters, S. 1996. The Neotropical Toad Genus Atelopus. Checklist - Biology - Distribution. Vences, M. and Glaw, F. Verlags GbR, Köln, Germany.
• Lynch, J.D. 1993. A new harlequin frog from the Cordillera Oriental of Colombia (Anura: Bufonidae: Atelopus). Alytes: 77-87.
• Pounds, J.A., Bustamante, M.R., Coloma, L.A., Consuegra, J.A., Fogden, M.P.L., Foster, P.N., La Marca, E., Masters, K.L., Merino-Viteri, A., Puschendorf, R., Ron, S.R., Sánchez-Azofeifa, G.A., Still, C.J. and Young, B.E. 2006. Widespread amphibian extinctions from epidemic disease driven by global warming. Nature 439: 161-167.
• Rueda-Almonacid, J.V., Lynch, J., and Amézquita, A. 2004. Libro rojo de anfibios de Colombia. Conservación Internacional – Colombia, Instituto de Ciencias Naturales – Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Ministerio del Medio Ambiente, Bogotá.
• Ruiz-Carranza, P.M., Ardila-Robayo, M.C. and Lynch, J.D. 1996. Lista actualizada de la fauna de Amphibia de Colombia. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales 20(77): 365-415.