There are over 7,800 species of frog across the world from the Common Frog you might see in your yard to the iconic Tree Frog with its orange feet and eyes, to the red Tomato Frog and the beautifully patterned Panamanian Golden Frog.

Some species are harmless whilst others – particularly the vibrantly colored poison dart frogs – are highly toxic and touching them will result in a hefty hospital bill at best.

However, due to factors including habitat destruction, many of these iconic frog species are at risk of extinction, with conservationists estimating that 34% of frog species could become extinct, whilst at least 200 have done so since 1970.

However, there is a little bit of good news in the frog world, as a team of researchers in Chile have recently rediscovered a frog species that hasn’t been spotted in the wild in over 130 years.

The Alsodes vittatus species of frog was discovered by French entomologist Philibert Germain in 1893 at an estate in La Araucanía Region, Chile. With the help of German naturalist Rodulfo Amando Philippi, the species was first described in scientific record in 1902.

With an iconic black and white stripe along the back of the male frog, and a speckled pattern on the female, you’d think that these frogs would be easy to spot.

However, since their first discovery by humans, the frogs have proved elusive, with not one Alsodes vittatus frog spotted for over 130 years.

So when a team from the Laboratory of Systematics and Conservation of Herpetozoa (SyCoH) of the University of Concepción, Chile successfully spotted that striking stripe on their long quest to rediscover the frog, they couldn’t believe their eyes.

Locating the frogs was no easy task. Just like many researchers before them, they tracked down the former estate where Germain found the frogs, then conducted a thorough search of the area by reconstructing the entomologist’s route using the sparse documents he left behind, as they described in a statement:

“The main challenge in locating it was the lack of precision in the description of its type locality. In Germain’s time, the Hacienda San Ignacio de Pemehue was an estate of enormous size, and the naturalist did not specify the exact place where he collected the specimens.”

But their painstaking quest – published in the journal ZooKeys – proved fruitful, and eventually they located the rare frog species in two river basins, proving that – despite their knack for hiding – this species endures in Chile, with multiple male and female frogs spotted.

However, despite their celebrations, the rarity of these frogs is not a good sign, the researchers continued:

“The rediscovery of A. vittatus allowed us to obtain, more than a century after its description, the first biological and ecological data on the species. Field observations also indicate that this amphibian faces several significant threats and that it could be considered endangered.

In a broader context, this rediscovery demonstrates the limited biological, evolutionary and biogeographic knowledge of the amphibians that inhabit the southern cone of South America, emphasizing the urgency of their study and conservation.”

In other words, these incredible frogs are at risk – like many other species – and that is, in part, our fault.

If we want to protect and preserve the rich diversity of our planet’s ecosystems, we need to act fast.

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