In Conversation

We are in the AmphibiaWeb Newsletter! 

"November 24, 2025: A report from Moretta-Urdiales et al (2025): When we walk through a forest, we usually notice what’s around us, but rarely what’s above us. That’s true for biologists as well: there are some places in nature, like the canopy, that are notoriously difficult to survey. In our report, we searched for frogs in bromeliads—plants with cup-shaped leaves that can hold water, serving as small aquatic refugia—high in the treetops of Mashpi Reserve, a cloud forest in the Andes mountains of Ecuador. We climbed 20 trees, ranging from 16.3 to 35.6 meters in height, to survey 101 canopy bromeliads. Although we expected to find many frogs, we only discovered seven individuals and one clutch of eggs, all from the same genus (Pristimantis). This low abundance may be related to the near-constant humidity and water availability in the cloud forest, which reduces the need for frogs to seek refuge high in the canopy. Our results highlight how little we know about life above the forest floor and emphasize the need for more canopy explorations across different elevations, forest types, and seasons to understand where frogs choose to live and why. (Maria Del Mar Moretta Urdiales)"