Taxonomic notes: Lötters (1996), suggested that the Cauca localities (by Cochran and Goin 1970) were doubtful on geographic grounds.

This species is known only from the type locality: San Isidro, Municipio de Ubala, Cundinamarca Department, Colombia, at 2,600-3,100m asl.

It is an inhabitant of cloud forest, with breeding and larval development taking place in streams.

There have been no reports of this species since its original description in 1963, but there appear to have been no attempts to relocate it.

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The major threat is likely to be chytridiomycosis, leading to a catastrophic population decline, as has occurred in many other montane species of Atelopus. Habitat destruction due to potato farming is also a threat to this species.

• 11.5 Other impacts
• 2.1.4 Scale Unknown/Unrecorded
• 8.1.2 Named species

The species has not been recorded from any protected area, although it might occur in the Reserva Forestal Protectora El Predio Río Sucio, in the Municipio de Gachalá. Survey work is necessary to determine the current population status of the species. In view of the threat of chytridiomycosis, surviving individuals might need to be taken into captivity.

• 1.2 Resource & habitat protection
• 3.4.1 Captive breeding/artificial propagation

Listed as Critically Endangered because of a projected population decline, estimated to be more than 80% over the next ten years, inferred from declines in other high altitude Atelopus species in the same region, probably due to chytridiomycosis.

• Acosta-Galvis, A.R. 2000. Ranas, Salamandras y Caecilias (Tetrapoda: Amphibia) de Colombia. Biota Colombiana: 289-319.
• Cochran, D.M. and Goin, C.J. 1970. Frogs of Colombia. United States National Museum Bulletin, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.