Ranitomeya amazonica Amazon Poison Frog
This species was formerly considered part of the Ranitomeya (Dendrobates) ventrimaculata species complex.
Quistacocha Zoo, Iquitos, Loreto, PeruJanuary 30, 2016
Amazon Poison Frog (Ranitomeya amazonica) Amazon Poison Frog (Ranitomeya amazonica)
My friend Matt Cage had found these fantastically beautiful little poison frogs on the grounds of the Iquitos Zoo in the past, but he had not seen them in recent years. Our group was very excited to find this thumbnail-sized jewel hopping about in the leaf litter. We probably spent half an hour pointing cameras at it and gently encouraging it not to hop too far. (When it got the inclination, I would put my hand in front of it, and it would hop onto my hand. Then I'd put my hand back in the center of our group, where we had put some large leaves to serve as background, and it would hop off my hand back onto the leaves.)

My Travelogues and Trip Lists page includes a complete list of the herps I saw in the wild on my 2016 MT Amazon Expeditions trip.

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