Day 2 - Hotel Bouganvillea - other critters

Green Spiny Lizard

Green Spiny Lizard

Leopard Frog

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Variegated Squirrel 

Golden eyed Tree Frog

The Golden eyed or Blue-sided Tree Frog (Agalychnis annae) is a very colourful amphibian with pink, lavender, orange and blue on its limbs and sides, contrasting with its uniform green upper surface. The large eyes of the blue-sided tree frog are yellow-orange, which gives the frog its other common name, the golden-eyed leaf frog. As in other Agalychnis species, the eyes of this frog have vertical pupils.

The most notable characteristic of the blue-sided tree frog, and the feature for which it is named, is the striking, purplish-blue colouring on its flanks and thighs. The blue-sided tree frog is both nocturnal and arboreal, and like other Agalychnis species it typically moves around by walking, although it will also leap between branches. This species breeds during the wet season, between May and November, with mating taking place three to ten metres above the ground. During copulation, the female carries the male to a pond below only to return to the trees to find a place to deposit her eggs. The eggs are usually deposited on top of leaves up to three metres above still water.  After the eggs hatch in five to seven days, the larvae of the blue-sided tree frog either intentionally fall into the pond below or are washed down during heavy rainfall, and this is where they then mature and metamorphose into adult frogs. In captivity, this has taken around 247 days. The larvae of the blue-sided tree frog are frequently found in garden fountains and swimming pools of Costa Rica’s upland cities, including San José and the surrounding urban areas.

 The frog is endemic to Costa Rica, and can be found at elevations ranging from 780 to 1,650 metres on the slopes of the cordilleras of northern and central Costa Rica. Today, the species remains almost exclusively in disturbed and polluted habitat in areas around Costa Rica’s capital city of San José.

 The blue-sided tree frog has suffered a precipitous decline in its population, with an estimated 50 percent or more loss in population since the 1990s. Some factors believed to have contributed to this sharp decline are the international pet trade, the fungal disease chytridiomycosis, and larvae predation by an introduced fish species. The blue-sided tree frog is a popular species in the international pet trade, along with other frogs in the genus Agalychnis. In 2007, the United States alone was reported to have imported 221,960 Agalychnis frogs over the previous decade.