Out on the fingerlike peninsula of southwestern Haiti is the remote forest realm of the La Hotte bush frog—or what is left of it. “It's a very beautiful forest,” says Carlos Martinez Rivera, a conservation biologist at the Philadelphia Zoo. “It feels like going to any other tropical rain forest. But it's a very tiny patch of forest.” In recent decades Haiti has desperately cut down trees to grow crops or make charcoal. So, in 2010, the Philadelphia Zoo captured 154 frogs from nine species in those fading forests for breeding back in the U.S.
Now the zoo hosts more than 1,500 Haitian frogs, including more than 1,200 La Hotte bush frogs. “If you do have a doomsday scenario where the forest is gone, the species will still be preserved,” Martinez Rivera says.
Biology and behavior have helped the frog thrive in captivity. The females lay large clutches of eggs, which the males then guard until they hatch, freeing up the females to mate again and lay more eggs. “They're very prolific in that sense,” Martinez Rivera says.
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Read more at blogs.ScientificAmerican.com/extinction-countdown
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
