# Atelopus frogs



## PAULSCHUMANN (Apr 20, 2005)

I am dieing to get my hands on some of these. Are they available. if so what species and what price are they commanding these days. How are they in captivity. do any imports come in to the country anymore, if so are they too difficult to acclimate? basically I am looking for any info anyone is willing to give me on this group of frogs. one more question...Are they frogs or toads? or something inbetween or different like a Tuatara. I notice they have a toad like structure to their hind legs and what looks like a toad's parotid glands behind the head??????

Thanks for answering other questions I have had, this site is great. Everyone is very knowledgable, and the ethics and morals around here are a little higher than everywhere else I have been.


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## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

They are trying to save them going extinct right now!!! Donate right here from the Dendroboard. The NAIB has them breeding and no they are not available.


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## jmcc000 (Apr 7, 2005)

Here is some of what is going on with these frogs.
http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6937


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## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

Beautiful frog though!


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## PAULSCHUMANN (Apr 20, 2005)

Are all of the species of atelopus disapearing...A. zeteki, A. various, etc... I thought there were several species still in existance. If none are available can anyone share more info about the group of frogs, are they toads/frogs, how many species are left, how many have dissapeared, etc... why is there so little information on these guys, I have a hard time finding pics let alone a good book or a website about atelopus.


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## RSines (Feb 15, 2004)

Atelopus are in the family Bufonidae which are 'true toads'

David,
I am pretty sure NAIB is not breeding the A. zeketi because they are all related. Can some one double check this? Did they get new ones? 

-Rich


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## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

They're related, but they are breeding them! They just are sending the siblings to other facilities.


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## RSines (Feb 15, 2004)

This must be recent. Did they give a time frame?


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## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

The NAIB tour was too quick and we didn't get into specifics.


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## Guest (May 5, 2005)

NIAB or any AZA for that matter cannot raise those Atelopus eggs even though they are breeding, since there is only one bloodline in the US currently


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## Guest (May 5, 2005)

There is a great book on them, but it is out of print and often very expensive to buy used. As for sites, there is the project golden frog site among a few others. For Atelopus, you really need to do a lit search and find articles on them. There is quite a few of them out there, and more on the way since many of those who are extinct have still not been fully described. As for commercially available ones, there were imports of A. spumarius from Surinam, but I couldn´t tell you the status of them. The species here in Ecuador we are trying to save is of the A. spumparius-pulcher complex, but still unnamed. As far as status other places, I know A. pulcher are endangered in Peru and a few other places. 
j


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## Arklier (Mar 1, 2004)

There's a really nice pic of Atelopus zeteki in this year's Frogs calendar by National Geographic... labled as Dendrobates terribilis.


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## Blort (Feb 5, 2005)

I picked up Harlequin Frogs: A Complete Guide, Heselhaus & Shtmidt at the yearly Houston library book sale for 2 bucks. They have it at Powell's:

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?i ... 93802709-0

Or if you don't mind doing business with a company that's trying to patent the concept of the Internet (link here), you can find it at Amazon.


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## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

*Atelopus*

Strictly Reptiles used to get A. Peruensis (???spelling species name??) all of the time. You could go in and see several pair in amplexis in a tub filled with them, this was maybe as recent as last year. They were pretty bland green frogs/toads.
I would say a real challenge for anyone if you can get any.
Mark


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Arklier said:


> There's a really nice pic of Atelopus zeteki in this year's Frogs calendar by National Geographic... labled as Dendrobates terribilis.


I seen that too...made me decide to not buy the calender.


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## Ed Martin (Mar 25, 2004)

Thanks Joe, you beat me to it. 

As Justin said some people in the hobby are working with A. Spumaris, there was a shipment that came in about this time last year, and several before that. They are really a cool little toad. I have not heard of any consistant breeding success. 

Ed


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Some points,

1) not all of the A. zeteki are related, there were multiple founders collected, the offspring from these are being managed in sibling groups and these are the ones that are typically not being bred. 
2) With Zeteki you need to be an approved institution to breed them (and they are not available in the pet trade)
3) As was mentioned these are toads
4) To date, all other Atelopus species that have had breeding attempted do not appear to be as easy to bred as zeteki. This is an issue that is being seen in Europe as well as in the USA with other Atelopus species. 
5) extinctions in montane Atelopus are happening quickly as Atelopus appear to be very sensitive to chytrid

Ed


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## EricM (Feb 15, 2004)

ATelopus spumarius was coming in from Suriname more than a year ago, the shipments were very male heavy; I would go through a hundred toads to find maybe 4 females. 

Some of the pairs that were in amplexus would stay that way for months but never laid in captivity. We kept a group for the 3 months necessary for export and they did fairly well after intial treatment. They are very slow animals, the sloths of the toad world.

Suriname had some trouble with CITES and thus no more D. tinctorius have been coming in. There is some hopes that this has been cleard up and soon more frogs may come in from Suriname. I would guess that spumarius may accompany the shipments, which always come into Florida. Most shipments from Suriname are mainly for the snakes and the frogs are add ons. IF you want to get spumarius or tincts get in touch with a dealer down there before the animals land, that way you can arrange to get them as soon as they come in. NObody wants frogs after they have been sitting on each other in a tupperware tub in a warehouse with a single dirty water dish and crickets too large for them to eat. I've seen it too many times not to rant a bit.

Eric


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## Ed Martin (Mar 25, 2004)

Ed, Thanks for the clarification on the status of A. zeteki.

Eric, do you have any guesses when shipments might come in or point me to a place I can look. I worked with a couple dealers when the last shipment came in, but caught it at the tail end and the animals were in pretty rough shape. I never was able to get any. 

Thanks! 
Ed


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## dvknight (Feb 20, 2004)

Out of curiousity, if Suriname is closed, where are the recent importations of trivattatus coming from?


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## EricM (Feb 15, 2004)

Suriname is closed for frogs in the Dendrobates genus which is why trivs still come in. The A. spumarius are seasonal but if they are collected in areas where tinctorius were previously collected there may not be anymore coming in until the tinct ban is lifted.

I would get in touch with Mario at Extreme Reptiles, he is not the importer but he deals with the importer and is fairly close by so he can pick them up when they land.

Thanks
ERic


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