Finding my first Splendid leaf frog?

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Andrew Gray

C. sylviae (La Selva Biological Research Station) (c) Andrew Gray

Originally it took me about 5 years to find my first Cruziohyla sylviae in the wild. Up until then only very few had been found. I returned each year to Costa Rica in the hope of finding these wonderful frogs and worked in several locations before finding any trace. The first C. sylviae I ever saw was at La Selva Biological Research Station (a large female). It was such an amazing experience. I was so chuffed and excited I remember giving my female assistant a big kiss at the time – and my lips going numb through the fact that she had only just covered her face with deet! 🙂 The first egg clutch I found was deep in the Talamancan mountain range, a dense impenetrable jungle area that stretches from southern Costa Rica into Panama. Later, in 2000, I returned to Cost Rica to help film the species for the first time in a programme for Animal Planet. However, although we finally found and filmed some of the frogs, I wasn’t going to kiss my sidekick on that trip, Mark O’Shea! 🙂

http://www.markoshea.tv/series1/series01-09.html

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