Rainforest Frog Farm

 Symbols of the tropical rainforest, untiring nocturnal recital choir deliverers, bizarrely multicolored (like the red eye tree frog) and some poisonous (like the strawberry poisson dart frog) but with a very sensitive skin, the rainforest frogs at our conservationist frog farm can surely lead you to witness the extraordinary variations in colors, shapes and habits that a frog can have, besides life aspects and remarkable facts to learn about, making your Costa Rica vacation naturally astounding!

Rainforest Frog Farm
Location: Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica. Hotel Los Lagos
Schedule: 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.
Includes: Frog farm information & explanation with facts about rainforest frogs.
Recommendations: Camera with good optical zoom (best with macro lens).
Price: Access is included with your hotel reservation or hotel entrance fee.
*Because of very sensitive frog skin, avoid contact or please keep in mind that you must have your skin hands very clean (no lotions, creams or repellents) in order to touch a frog without risk its life.

Strawberry Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates pumilio). Strawberry Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates pumilio). Strawberry Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates pumilio). Red Eye Tree Frog couple (Agalychnis callidryas). Green & Black Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates auratus). Masked Tree Frog (Smilisca phaeota). Red Eye Tree Frog resting (Agalychnis callidryas). Masked Tree Frog (Smilisca phaeota). Red Eye Tree Frog in plenum activity (Agalychnis callidryas). Masked Tree Frog (Smilisca phaeota). Green & Black Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates auratus). Masked Tree Frog (Smilisca phaeota).

 Rain forest frogs of some families have evolved specialized body shapes to fit into the narrow spaces among the bromeliad leaves, which stores water at its bases and provides this way the ideal wet cradle for the eggs an then the tadpoles (the first stages of frog metamorphosis prior to adulthood); and in some cases, the tadpoles are carried from ponds to bromeliad water tanks clinging on the frog back!. These cares are needed to avoid as much as possible the predatory effect (from fishes, damselflies nymphs and other aquatic insects) over the most inoffensive creature in the tropical rainforest: the frog tadpole. In the case of the poison dart frog (named after Amazon tribes using them to poison their hunting guns: arrows and blowpipe darts), evolution has created colorful patterns, as you can see in the famous Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, called aposematic coloration, that play the function of being a very conspicuous warning signal of bad taste or being a dangerous (even deadly) meal, in order to avoid this way to be devoured by the myriad of potential predators that share its habitat. Rain forest frogs feed mostly on insects and worms, catching them with their sticky, forked tongue, attached at the front of the lower jaw.

 Great scientific interest to biology has created the Poison dart frog because of the discovery that the poison dart frog obtain the toxic chemicals they defend themselves with, from alkaloid-rich ants and other tropical rainforest insects, which they have evolutionary relationship. Even scientists have recently found that some poison dart frogs not only absorb the alkaloids of ants, but even have the ability to modify them, creating more toxic variants. The poison dart frog's fascinating ability to resist, store, and manipulate toxins, along with its related role in the rainforest food chain, are among the most important discoveries in the study of food chain evolution.

 The Strawberry Poison Dart Frog or blue jeans poison dart frog, Dendrobates pumilio (Oophaga pumilio as recently named in 2006), is a type of poison dart frog found in Central America, with a high concentration within Costa Rica tropical rainforest. As a good example of aposematic coloration, the Strawberry Poison Dart Frog have conspicuous colors as a warning and indicative of toxins existence in its skin (giving the frog a bad taste) working as antipredator adaptation. The diurnal Strawberry Poison Dart Frog feeds mainly on ants, have very few predators thanks to its toxins, and ca reach 5-6 years of age. These frogs and related ones are notable in the amphibian world for exhibiting a high degree of parental care, as mentioned above, indeed, its reproductive behavior is one of the most amazing and unbelievable of tropical rainforest.

 A tree frog has large adhesive toepads, which enable them to climb on the smooth vegetation surfaces; and one of their most known representative, the Red Eye Tree Frog (Agalychnis callidryas) is a nocturnal arboreal frog native to the American rainforest. It have a size of about 7-8 cm (2.8 inches). Its ventral skin is white, soft and fragile, but its dorsal one is green, thicker and rougher. The sides of the frog are purple or blue, with distinctive vertical white stripes and orange toes. Have big bulged red eyes with vertically narrowed pupils as in cats' eyes. The Red Eye Tree Frog feeds on moths, crickets, beetles, flies among other small arthropods; but can be eaten by birds, turtles, lizards, snakes, bats and another mammals as well. Because it's not poisonous it rely on camouflage to protect them. During the day, the Red Eye Tree Frog remains motionless, cover their blue sides with their back legs, tuck their bright feet under their belly, and shut their red eyes. They thus appear almost completely green, and well hidden among the foliage, but it recovers all its astounding and bizarre coloring once at full activity. In its habitat, the Red Eye Tree Frog lives about three to five years.

Don't forget that after an intense and active tour day you can enjoy relax in the natural hot springs hotel facilities and get relax, health and beauty at our Fangus Spa Resort.