A newly discovered population of the Critically Endangered glassfrog species Centrolene heloderma is only located meters away from one of the two major oil pipelines of Ecuador, the OCP (Heavy Crude Oilpipe). For safety reasons, constant cutting and clearing is required around the pipeline; this job is performed by personnel from Reserva Las Gralarias to ensure that the habitat of C. heloderma is not altered.
The SOS-funded project aims at improving the critical habitat of 9 species of globally threatened amphibians and monitoring their populations. Previous to the project, the glassfrog species was known from just one stream within the study site, Reserva Las Gralarias. After three months of monitoring a team from SOS project partner Universidad Tecnológica de Indoamérica (UTI) identified a new population in another stream. Based on the presence of singing males and viable clutches, the project team verified that the species is reproducing in this area.
For more information, please read the full IUCN blog post.
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