Minyobates steyermarki facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Minyobates steyermarki |
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Dendrobates steyermarki Rivero, 1971 |
Minyobates steyermarki is a tiny, bright red frog that lives only in one special place: Cerro Yapacana in southern Venezuela. It's part of the Dendrobatidae family, also known as poison dart frogs. People sometimes call it the demonic poison frog or Yapacana's little red frog. It's the only species in its group, called Minyobates.
This frog makes its home in mountain forests on top of flat-topped mountains called tepuis. It likes to live on the ground among mossy rocks. It also lays its eggs in plants like bromeliads. Sadly, this little frog is in danger. Things like gold mining, people taking them as pets, and forest fires are big problems. Because of these threats, the IUCN says it is "critically endangered", meaning it's at a very high risk of disappearing forever.
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Meet the Minyobates Steyermarki Frog
The Minyobates steyermarki is a very small frog. It usually grows to be shorter than 17 mm (0.7 in) long, which is less than an inch! The biggest ones might reach 19.5 mm (0.8 in).
What Does It Look Like?
Its head is wide, and its nose area looks a bit flat. It has a sharp ridge between its eye and its nostril. Its front legs are long and thin. All its fingers have small pads, like tiny sticky discs, at their tips. The first finger is longer than the second. The third and fourth fingers have bigger pads than the others. Its toes also have pads, but they are smaller than the ones on its hands. The toes are not connected by webs.
The frog's skin is a bit bumpy on its throat and sides, but smooth everywhere else. Its back is bright red, dull red, or reddish-brown. It has many small black spots all over its back. Its legs are usually the same color as its body, or they might be a salmon-pink color. Its belly and underside are similar in color but have larger dark blotches.
Where This Frog Lives
The Minyobates steyermarki frog is found only in one place: Cerro Yapacana in Venezuela.
Cerro Yapacana: A Special Mountain Home
Cerro Yapacana is a unique tepui, which is a table-top mountain. Imagine a huge, flat mountain that rises straight up from the flat land around it. This mountain is between the Orinoco and Ventuari Rivers. The top of Cerro Yapacana is about 1,345 m (4,413 ft) high. The rainforest around it is much lower, at only about 80 metres (260 ft) above sea level.
The entire plateau of Cerro Yapacana is protected as part of the Yapacana National Park. This area gets a lot of rain. The temperature there usually stays between 13 and 27 °C (55 and 81 °F), which is a comfortable range for these frogs.
How the Minyobates Steyermarki Behaves
The Minyobates steyermarki frog mostly lives on the ground. It prefers wooded areas where trees are about 8 to 10 metres (26 to 33 ft) tall. It especially likes rocky spots that are covered in moss.
Reproduction and Life Cycle
These frogs lay their eggs and raise their young in small pools of water. This water often collects in the leaves of plants, like in the cup-shaped leaves of bromeliads.
Protecting the Minyobates Steyermarki
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has said that Minyobates steyermarki is "critically endangered". This means it is at a very high risk of becoming extinct in the wild.
Why Is It in Danger?
The main reason for this high risk is that the frog's total living area is very small, less than 10 square kilometres (3.9 sq mi). Even though many frogs were seen on the tepui in 1999, their numbers seem to be going down.
Several things threaten this special frog:
- Wildfires: Forest fires could cause serious harm to these frogs and their homes.
- Gold Mining: Open-pit gold mining is a big threat to their forest habitat. This type of mining digs up large areas of land.
- Illegal Collection: Some frogs have been taken from their natural home without permission, sometimes for studies or for the pet trade.
Protecting Cerro Yapacana and its unique environment is very important to help this tiny red frog survive.
See also
In Spanish: Minyobates steyermarki para niños
