- [Brian] Coyote I got one here
- You got one?
- Yeah.
- Ooh, where, where, where?
Oh, there it is, yes!
Right on the edge of that leaf!
Oh, it's crouching down, you got a shot?
Got it!
(adventure music)
Nestled below the endless expanse of treetops
a biologically diverse world of animals
call the Costa Rican Rainforest home,
and on this adventure I will be working alongside an expert
who has dedicated his life to preserving this wild place.
Since 2002, Brian Kubicki has owned and operated
The Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center.
Located on the Caribbean Coast, this 120 acre preserve
is home to a plethora of animals, including birds,
mammals,
countless creepy crawlies,
reptiles, and his absolute favorite, amphibians.
Okay, Brian, so we have hiked out here into the rainforest
and we are standing in what's 125 acres of your reserve.
Tonight we're heading out looking for
one of the rarest amphibians that lives here.
It's critically endangered all around the world, correct?
- Yes, according to the IUCN Red List
it's critically endangered, it's its official status.
The next status up is extinct.
- [Coyote] Wow. Now Mark,
when you hear critically endangered what do you think of?
- [Mark] I think of super rare
and something we're not going to find.
- Right, and Brian, you're pretty confident
we're gonna come across these frogs tonight.
- [Brian] Yes.
- Okay, and what species is it
that we're lookin' for tonight?
- The lemur leaf frog.
- Cool, now I have never seen this frog,
and you think there's a pretty good chance
we're gonna find one tonight?
- Yeah, yeah, we can definitely see it,
we have a nice population here.
- All right, nice, well let's get our flashlights out,
head out there into the rainforest and see what we can find.
- Let's do it. - All right!
Brian has spent countless hours in the field,
which in turn have resulted in numerous important
discoveries and rediscoveries of amphibian species
that have not been seen in decades.
And while he loves all amphibians,
he has a particular interest in frogs.
So on this dark, rainy night,
we're heading out to search for one of the rarest species
to call this preserve its home, the lemur leaf frog.
Okay real quiet for a second, everybody quiet.
That, is that a frog call?
- Yep, that there's our little dink frog.
- Dink frog?
- It's a small, little frog that lives in the vegetation,
especially in the low-lying vegetation in the forest.
- Okay, now, do you ever call out to the frogs?
Make a frog call yourself and see
if something will respond like birders do?
- There are certain species of frogs
that definitely will respond, so they have a certain level
of, call it jealousy I guess, they hear another frog
so they wanna use their voice to like, overlap his.
So there are certain species that definitely
you can kind of like initiate their calling
by kind of making a similar noise, definitely, yeah.
- And is the lemur frog one of those frogs?
- No, unfortunately it's not.
- No, but will we be listening
to see if we hear them calling?
Yeah they have a very distinct call,
it's a really pretty call, like a belly whistle,
but a very distinct call, so we'll be able to hear 'em
and go in on 'em for sure, yeah.
- Cool, if we hear any we'll stop and get real quiet,
and see if we can pick it up on camera.
- Yeah, of course.
- Okay, let's keep moving.
(dramatic music)
- Now, Brian, I don't know if I would recognize
the call of this frog if I just heard it,
but I feel like I'd be pretty good at spotting it.
What should I be looking for?
- What we're gonna be looking for is actually the eyeshine.
- Okay.
- So what I want you to do, Coyote,
is you see how with my flashlight
I've got it right in front of my eyes
like right on the tip of my nose?
So look at that and you'll look for little white lights,
which are the frog's eyes,
they reflect the light back at us.
- Oh, that's interesting, I mean, normally
I'm walking with my flashlight down like this
and just kind of projecting it around,
but I notice, you're right if you put it like,
right up to your nose,
the beam is straight in front of your eyes.
- [Brian] And you see a reflection, yep.
- [Coyote] All right well let's keep movin'
and you let me know if you hear one.
- [Brian] Okay, yeah.
(dramatic music)
- It's startin' to rain, watch your camera, okay?
- [Mark] Yeah.
- If it opens up put the camera in the bag.
- [Brian] Coyote, I got one here.
- You got one? - Yeah.
- Ooh, where, where, where?
Let me see.
- Right here, okay hold your flashlight
in front of your face like I told you.
- [Coyote] Oh there it is, yes!
Right on the edge of that leaf!
- [Brian] Yep!
- [Coyote] Can I go down there and grab it?
- Yep.
Yeah just go on this little trail here,
that'd probably be the best way to go down
this little small trail here.
- [Coyote] Okay, all right, Mark, you wanna come with me?
Let's do it.
- [Brian] All right, I'll be right behind you.
- Watch your footing, hold on, checking for snakes.
You get excited and then you end up
stepping on a fer-de-lance.
I'm gonna be real gentle with this.
Oh, look at that little, oh, oh,
it's crouching down, you got a shot?
- [Mark] Yep!
- Got it!
Awesome, yes!
- [Mark] All right!
- I'm gonna bring it back up, let's,
this is not a good spot to do a scene.
Brian we're gonna come back up to you,
and get this little frog in front of the camera.
All right, I got a real gentle hold on his back leg,
I'm gonna crouch down here, you guys ready?
This frog is so cool lookin'.
All right, ready?
One, two, there he is!
Look at that face!
He looks like ET!
- [Brian] It's all eyes.
- [Coyote] This might be one of the coolest looking frogs
I've ever seen.
From the backside it just kinda looked like
a normal tree frog but as soon as I saw its face
I was like "No wonder this is so unique!"
- It's very iconic with its large, bulging eyes.
It's all eyes, yeah.
- Wow and the eyes are gray!
- That species, when they're active,
they typically have like a darker iris coloration,
but in the daytime when they're sleeping,
if you wake 'em up they have these
bright, silver-white eyes, and also the skin on their back
is bright, fluorescent green.
- Look at the yellow sides,
and actually with that light I can see
right through the side of his belly.
Now, Brian, why are these frogs so rare?
I mean, what's caused them to become critically endangered?
- [Brian] No answer, we're not 100% sure what happened.
Obviously it's felt that there's a type of fungus
and other diseases might have led to the decline,
but in reality we're not 100% sure.
- To me this is tiny.
I'm trying to be as gentle as I possibly can,
and the front feet are just so crazy looking.
No webbing on the front or the back toes,
but they do seem to have little, tiny sticky pads.
Does that help them crawl from leaf to leaf?
- [Brian] Yep, exactly.
- Okay.
I noticed that this frog has incredibly long,
slender legs, and I see it's, look at it,
it's like walking across my hand.
I got a gentle hold on this one leg, here.
See look at that, it completely keeps its body
up off of the ground.
Why are those legs so long?
- [Brian] This frog is typically walking on real thin,
weak leaves that don't have a lot of structure
to hold up a lot of weight,
so they have to distribute their weight on those leaves
as they're walking along like that.
- Okay, there he goes.
Okay I'm gonna bring him back over here.
So if they're out there walking across the leaves,
are they hunting and if so what are they hunting for?
- [Brian] Yeah, they'd be hunting for any small
invertebrates they can fit in their mouth.
They're also up there, you know, obviously breeding,
males will be near their breeding sites, calling,
and advertising to females.
- Right, okay, so opportunistic feeders,
opportunistic breeders.
That sounds pretty accurate.
And you said that this is a male.
- [Brian] This is a male.
- [Coyote] And is there a way to differentiate
between the males and the females?
- The females will be a little larger,
and the males will have a little bit
of what's called a nuptial pad, a little bit of a pad,
so if you can see the base of that little dark patch there?
- Okay yeah.
- That's typical in the males,
'cause they'll grab the females by the armpits.
- Right.
- And that's known as axillary amplexus.
- Okay.
- [Brian] But the biggest thing is definitely the size.
Females are quite a bit bigger and a little bit more robust.
- [Coyote] Okay, same color though.
- [Brian] Same color.
- [Coyote] Now, it was almost brown in coloration
when I caught it, and it's like we've gotten him
in front of the lights and it's changed color
like a chameleon.
- [Brian] Yes, that's what's known as metachrosis,
the ability to change colors.
This species and a lot of other frog species,
and even some salamanders have the ability
to change their colors according to activity,
maybe the backgrounds they're on.
It's actually a fairly common trait in different amphibians.
- That's really cool.
So, Brian, these frogs were here historically,
then they disappeared and you're conservation project
has brought them back in and now they're flourishing.
How excited are you about this?
I mean, what a great success!
- Yeah, it has been a great success
and it's pretty much a pioneering project,
so we didn't really know what to expect
so it's been really exciting to actually see
the great success we've had over,
a little over a decade now we've been
working with this species and
now we're seeing it actually colonizing
neighboring patches of forest we didn't see them before,
so, it's been very successful.
- If you had to guess, how many of these frogs
do you think are out there now?
- Definitely in the reserve, definitely it's within
the hundreds of individuals, yeah.
- Wow, that is so cool.
What a successful conservation effort
that you have accomplished here on the reserve,
I mean, so cool.
I mean we started the night, Brian said with 100% confidence
that we were going to come across one of these frogs.
I'm not gonna lie.
I was a little skeptical.
Critically endangered, and we're definitely gonna find one,
I mean we've gone out doing episodes of Breaking Trail
finding, looking for slugs and we've had more trouble.
- Yeah.
- And sure enough in just under an hour's time,
we managed to come across the lemur leaf frog.
This is so cool.
Well, Brian, I know, for myself
and the Brave Wilderness team this is one adventure
that's definitely gonna go down in the record books.
The first time I've ever caught and held
and endangered amphibian species.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave,
stay wild, we'll see you on the next adventure.
All right, it's starting to rain,
let's get this frog back onto its leaf.
- Let's go!
(dramatic music)
- [Coyote] Brian has dedicated his life
to the research and conservation of amphibian species.
And this preserve is one of the most renowned locations
in the world for seeing these incredible animals.
If you would like to visit,
make sure to check out their website,
and book your own amazing amphibian adventure.
If you thought the lemur leaf frog
was a bizarre looking amphibian,
make sure to go back and watch the episode
where we got up close with this alien-looking creature
known as a sicilian.
And don't forget, subscribe!
So you can join me and the crew
on this season of Breaking Trail.
(dramatic music)