Whilst the posts in our ‘Puerto Rico Month‘ theme have so far concentrated entirely on the islands’ avifauna, our intention right from the planning stages has always been to cover as much of Puerto Rico’s bio-diversity as possible. The archipelago is home to a huge range of important and threatened animals and plants, and we’re very grateful to Alberto López-Torres who has not only provided some fantastic bird photographs (have a look at his Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoos for example) but has just written a post on the (mostly) endemic Eleutherodactylus genus of frogs - known to every Puerto Rican as ‘coqui’.

We’re especially grateful to Alberto because he came on board ‘Puerto Rico Month’ from the outset, immediately seeing the potential of reaching a new audience to explain how important the biodiversity of his home country is to him. If any other Puerto Ricans like what we’re doing here and would like to help us promote Puerto Rico there’s still plenty of time to send us a guest post or photos: please email Charlie at charlie10000birds AT gmail.com.

‘Falling Silent? The Eleutherodactylus frogs of Puerto Rico’
Alberto López-Torres

Although this post is not about birds, it is still an interesting topic to discuss because amphibians are an essential part of the diet of many birds like: egrets, herons, owls, thrushes, etc., and if something were to happen to them, birds would probably be affected also.

Another important reason to write this post is that the Caribbean is considered to be one of the geographical regions with the most threatened species of amphibians. According to the Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA), Puerto Rico itself ranks fifth in the list of countries with the highest percentage of threatened amphibians - with 72.2% of its species threatened (IUCN 2006).

In just the last 30 years, Puerto Rico has possibly lost three of its endemic amphibian species: Eneida’s Coqui (Coquí de Eneida) Eleutherodactylus eneidae, the Web-footed Coqui (Coquí Palmeado) Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti and the Golden Coqui (Coquí Dorado) Eleutherodactylus jasperi. I’m sorry to say that I don’t have any pictures of these species because they were extinct before I started to study and photograph amphibians.

These species had very unique characteristics, like a high degree of habitat specialization and even being able to give birth to live offspring (as in the case of the Golden Coqui, the only ovoviviparous frog of the New World).

Amphibians are also an important part of Puerto Rican culture. The coqui is an emblematic group that comes to the mind of almost any Puerto Rican when they are asked to mention part of Puerto Rico’s fauna. ‘Coqui’ is what Puerto Ricans call the amphibians belonging to the genus Eleutherodactylus [which means 'free toes' in Greek - like many tree-frogs most of the Eleutherodactylus don't have webbed toes]. The Common Coqui (Coquí Común) Eleutherodactylus coqui (photo below) is the most widespread of all the species, found at all elevations and in basically all forest types. Puerto Ricans are used to falling asleep to the melody of the coqui, which is composed of two notes CO-QUI (CO-KEE). It is very common to hear stories of Puerto Ricans who decide to move to the US asking family members in Puerto Rico to stick their phone out of the window to listen to the coqui calling. [Incidentally those Puerto Ricans re-located to Hawaii don't have the same problem: according to eg The University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources the introduced Common Coqui has reached "unprecedented numbers", and "its noisy mating behavior have made the coqui frog the target of government and community eradication and control efforts"!]

Common Coqui (Coquí Común) Eleutherodactylus coqui
Photograph © Alberto López-Torres puertoricanwildlifephotography.blogspot.com

The Common Coqui isn’t the only species belonging to the genus of Eleutherodactylus in Puerto Rico, but many Puerto Ricans don’t know this. There are actually 16 more species belonging to this genus, all of which are endemic to the Puerto Rican Bank. This is the dominant genus of amphibians on the Island: 17 of Puerto Rico’s 19 amphibian species are Eleutherodactylus and this is why this post is concentrating on this genus.

In Puerto Rico there are various Coquis with very limited distribution. The Burrowing Coqui (Coquí Duende) Eleutherodactylus unicolor, the Warty Coqui (Coquí Martillito) Eleutherodactylus locustus, the Ground Coqui (Coquí Caoba) Eleutherodactylus richmondi (below), the recently discovered Plains Coqui (Coquí Llanero) Eleutherodactylus juanariveroi and the Rock Coqui (Coquí Guajón) Eleutherodactylus cooki. All of them are in a precarious state.

Ground Coqui (Coquí Caoba) Eleutherodactylus richmondi
Photograph © Alberto López-Torres puertoricanwildlifephotography.blogspot.com

Most of these species have suffered the ecological consequences of habitat loss because of Puerto Rico’s history of land use, in which most lands were used for agriculture before the 1950s. Now new threats emerge, with housing and road developments, which have intensified, thus maintaining fragmentation and habitat loss as a threat for amphibians in Puerto Rico. Declines are also occurring in protected areas, where suitable habitat is still available. Synergies between climate change and
a pathogenic fungus are suggested as the culprit of declines and local extinctions on highlands above 600 meters on the island, while lowland species are not being affected.

The Mona Coqui (Coquí de Mona) Eleutherodactylus monensis (photo below) is another species with very limited distribution because it is only found on Mona Island, a 13,638 acre/5,519 hectare island to the west of Puerto Rico’s main island, but there is no data on the current state of this species.

Mona Coqui (Coquí de Mona) Eleutherodactylus monensis
Photograph © Alberto López-Torres puertoricanwildlifephotography.blogspot.com

Antillean Coqui (Coquí Churí) Eleutherodactylus antillensis
Photograph © Alberto López-Torres puertoricanwildlifephotography.blogspot.com

The rest of the species of coquis have widespread distributions. The Antillean Coqui (Coquí Churí) Eleutherodactylus antillensis (photo above), is easily distinguished from other species because of its red eyes. It can be found from low to high elevations, but it prefers disturbed areas as its habitat. The Whistling Frog (Coquí Pitito) Eleutherodactylus cochranae is a small species that can be commonly seen in many gardens calling from bromeliads. The Grass Coqui (Coquí de las Hierbas) Eleutherodactylus brittoni, like E. antillenisis is also commonly found in disturbed areas next to roads and forest edges. The Tree-hole Frog (Coquí de Hedrick) Eleutherodactylus hedricki and Cricket Coqui (Coquí Grillo) Eleutherodactylus gryllus (photo below) are two species that are found in the canopy of forests at high elevations, making them amongst the hardest species to observe.

Cricket Coqui (Coquí Grillo) Eleutherodactylus gryllus
Photograph © Alberto López-Torres puertoricanwildlifephotography.blogspot.com

Puerto Rican Coqui (Coquí de Montaña Alta) Eleutherodactylus portoricensis
Photograph © Alberto López-Torres puertoricanwildlifephotography.blogspot.com

Other species that are found only at high elevations are the Puerto Rican Coqui (Coquí de Montaña Alta) Eleutherodactylus portoricensis (photo above) which also has a two note call like the Common Coqui (CO-KEE) but which is much faster when compared with the call of the Common Coqui, and the Wrinkled Frog (Coquí Melodioso) Eleutherodactylus wightmanae which is mainly found on the forest floor or on low perches.

As you have seen, Puerto Rico is definitely an archipelago rich in biodiversity: sadly many Puerto Ricans - and many outside Puerto Rico - don’t know this, and efforts like these ‘Puerto Rican Month’ posts are very important to help conserve our remaining species of amphibians and birds before they are lost. Please contribute if you can.

Text and photos above copyright Alberto Lopez-Torres

For more on the Eleutherodactylus visit Proyecto Coqui an NGO that does research, protects lands and educates the public on the importance of conserving Puerto Rico’s biodiversity - especially the herpetofauna.

The website is in Spanish but on the home page there is a ‘clickable’ slideshow that allows you to see and listen to all of the species of Eleutherodactylus in Puerto Rico.

• As an interesting aside a recent (May 5th) article at nationalgeographic.com reports the finding of up to 221 new amphibian species on Madagascar - as might be expected of any Nat Geo post there are some sublime photos…

• Like to see what else we’ve posted for ‘Puerto Rico Month’? Just click http://10000birds.com/tag/puerto-rico-month

 

• If you live in Puerto Rico or have visited PR and would like to contribute photos or a guest post (return traffic to your blog/website should be good, folks) then please mail charlie10000birds AT gmail DOT com

How would you and a partner/friend like to win a 5 day ‘Endemic Dash’ around Puerto Rico with Kevin Loughlin’s WildSide Nature Tours?

You would? Read on…

Kevin (whose photographs of Puerto Rican Woodpecker and Green-throated Carib grace this post) has been organising trips to the Caribbean for many years and is generously offering two places on an Endemic Dash, one of his popular short trips around Puerto Rico on which participants will be taken to see as many of the island’s endemics as possible.

The Tour starts in San Juan - so you’ll need to get there (flights are frequent and cheap from many major US cities) - but all guiding fees, accommodations, ground transportation, and meals from dinner on day of arrival through breakfast on day of departure are included!

That would normally cost two people around 2500USD - enter and win and it’ll cost you just your passport fees, airport taxes, alcoholic beverages, laundry, phone calls or anything else of a purely personal nature! Which - if you go easy on the celebratory beers, wear the same socks for a few days, and keep short the gloating phone calls to your jealous mates back home - really won’t amount to very much at all…

We’ll be posting more info about this fantastic competition during Puerto Rico Month - yes, okay, not posting the questions now is our way of making sure you come back to visit us, but why would you want to miss some truly exceptional photographs of Puerto Rico’s endemics and some of the most up-to-date info on Puerto Rico’s biodiversity on the net anyway?