What kind of amphibians live in the rainforest

Amphibian communities differ for each area within the Amazon Rainforest, which intensifies the need for research on these animals. Usually there is no scientific difference between what we know as frogs and toads.

The pictured toad Atelopus pulcher is active during the day hunting the forest floor for small insects and other invertebrates. They have a funny behavior when disturbed by a predator and rock on their bellies holding their arms and legs out in a sky diving pose. While they rock, they show off their bright orange colored palms.

This strange looking creature is an Amazon climbing salamander Bolitoglossa peruviana. There are over 70 different species of tropical salamander in the genus Bolitoglossa and they usually like living high in the trees. Here they prey on a range of prey like ants and other manageable invertebrates. What defends these apparently defenseless animals? Some can secrete toxins through their skin, which paralyses and often kills snakes a major predator.

Their habitat includes areas of lower and higher rainfall, in lowlands and in highlands. All boas are carnivores and kill their prey by wrapping their bodies around the victim and suffocating it [3].

Another distinctive reptile, the South American river turtle Podocnemis expansa , has lived in the Amazon for quite some time, and has existed on earth for over million years. This turtle is sensitive to changes in its habitat, so it is useful as an indicator species — meaning it reflects the status of the surrounding ecosystem with its own health and presence [3].

This was largely due to overhunting for consumption of its meat and eggs, as well as habitat disturbance and destruction due to fishing activities [3]. A number of human activities are threatening the diversity of amphibians and reptiles in the Amazon, including direct threats such as harvesting for illicit pet trade and indirect threats such as land conversion to agriculture.

A recent study in found that more complex, natural habitat better sustains biodiversity and species richness, while managed pastures and otherwise human-dominated, altered habitats exhibit reduced biodiversity and more invasive species [5]. Of the Earth's 10 million species of plants and animals, almost one-third call the Amazon rainforest home. A single tree in Peru was found to have 43 different species of ants, a total that approximates the number of ant species found in the entire United Kingdom Over the past two years, the video camera trap program at Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorean Amazon has managed to capture amazing footage of animals rarely seen by humans.

These cameras were primarily arranged around salt licks, where mammals, birds, and even Jessie Nagel is a communications specialist who brings decades of experience along with a passion for the environment, sustainability, and the arts, to her work as Chief Strategist with Amazon Aid Foundation.

Nagel is the co-founder of communications agency Hype, which offers public relations, marketing, and social media services to creative content providers in entertainment as well as select non-profit and independent business clients. She also helped develop and launch Green The Bid, an initiative aimed at shifting the production industry to zero-waste, carbon neutral, sustainable and regenerative practices, and is a founding member of the professional organization Women In Animation.

Nagel holds a B. Christina T Miller is a sustainable jewelry specialist who encourages leadership in positive social change and environmental protection. First trained as an artist, she brings creative problem solving to her work on gold supply chains, jewelry, and community organizing for Amazon Aid Foundation. Miller is the founder and lead consultant of Christina T.

Miller Sustainable Jewelry Consulting and provides strategy, guidance, and impact measurement services to clients including jewelry brands and not-for-profits. As co-founder and former director of Ethical Metalsmiths, Miller worked to create a community of individuals committed to responsible materials sourcing by raising awareness of problems needing attention and working to address them.

Susan Wheeler is a responsible jewelry advocate, she works to bring together people across the global jewelry supply chain to participate equally within the jewelry industry. As founder of The Responsible Jewelry Transformative, she works on the mission of uniting and transforming the jewelry industry around responsible practices so that it may help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Susan works through education, initiatives and community. She brings to the Clean Gold Campaign a passion for collaboration and outreach.

Susan is also a jewelry designer who uses her jewelry to highlight jewelry industry initiatives and positive narratives from miners and laborers whose work, community and environments are integral to her jewelry creation. Charlie has worked extensively at the intersection of environmental and social issues in Latin America.

In conjunction with his position at Amazon Aid, he is a Program Manager for the environmental health non-profit Pure Earth, where he leads a project in the Peruvian Amazon helping artisanal gold miners reduce mercury-use and restore degraded mining areas. Through this work, Charlie traveled to Madre de Dios, Peru in February to assist with reforestation and learn firsthand about the challenges and marvels of the Amazon Basin.

In his spare time, he enjoys writing, hiking and playing soccer. Born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia, he is thrilled to be working at the local and global level to protect the diversity of the Amazon. Luis E. Trained as a tropical ecologist, Luis is an expert on the environmental impacts of artisanal scale mining on tropical landscapes, particularly on the effects of mercury contamination on wildlife and indigenous communities.

Luis has led research efforts to study and address mining-related mercury contamination in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Madagascar. His research focuses on improving understanding of the global mercury cycle, particularly emissions from the artisanal gold mining sector, and its regional and global effects on forests, ecosystems and human populations.

Silman is a Professor of Biology. His work centers on understanding biodiversity distribution and the response of forests ecosystems to past and future climate and land use changes. His current projects also address Andean and Amazonian carbon cycles and biodiversity controls for use in innovative, private- and public-sector, ecosystem services projects that change land use by generating revenue for conservation and creating economic and social value for local participants.

Language English. Jumping marvels of the Amazon. The most abundant and varied amphibians in the region are undoubtedly toads, frogs and tree frogs. Amphibians such as frogs usually keep close to bodies of water, where their skin can stay moist. In tropical rainforests however, the prevalent humidity enables them to occupy a much wider range. Not surprisingly, frogs are mostly found in trees, relatively safe from predators. This is where they also lay their eggs on the underside of leaves or in water crevices , although some also lay them in the ground.

Poison dart frogs Dendrobates species Wildly coloured and notoriously toxic, poison dart frogs range from the rainforests of Central America to those of the Amazon Basin. Most of them live on the rainforest floor, although some prefer the safety of trees. They are most active in the daylight hours. Poison dart frogs are small 20 mm mm photogenic animals that exhibit bright colours — bright red, orange or bright green - so that their predators can easily recognize them and stay safely away.

It is estimated that about 2.