Meet Juliet, a Sehuencas water frog recently collected from the Bolivian cloud forest. (Robin Moore, Global Wildlife Conservation)
A year ago, Romeo was trolling match.com looking for another just like him. The staff at Bolivia’s Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d’Orbigny in Cochabamba put an ad up on the dating site to help bring awareness and funding to help locate another Sehuencas water frog. They didn't find him a "date" on the site, but they gained the funding needed to locate 5 frogs, including an adult female who has been named Juliet.
Close to a waterfall, however, expedition leader Teresa Camacho Badani saw a frog jump.
“When I pulled it out, I saw an orange belly and suddenly realized I had in my hands the long-awaited Sehuencas water frog,” Badani, who works for the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d’Orbigny in Cochabamba, tells Carrington. “My first reaction was to yell ‘I found one!’ and the team came running over to help me and pull the frog to safety. It was an incredible feeling.”
Researchers are still looking for more of the cricitcally endangered frogs to build an assurance population. Read more about this awesome expedition at
Smithsonianmag.com.