Amazon Amphibians

 Frogs were incredibly hard to spot in the dense shadow of the jungle canopy. I did our guides Marco and Omar proud when I spotted this Ecuadorian Ruby Poison Dart Frog resting on a leaf. Regular Ruby Poison Dart Frogs from Peru do not have those yellow limb spots. Poson-dart frogs have varying levels of toxicity. This one is low.  It is also threatened by habitat loss from deforestation. We were lucky to spot it.

 This one's eyes showed up lovely in the flash photo. This one I think is  a Peruvian Poison Frog (also threatened) but I am happy to be corrected. If the one I think it is, it is VERY toxic.This poison destroys nerve cells and sends powerful impulses, resulting in extreme pain. A Peruvian poison frog will contain around one milligram of poison, enough to cause severe pain in humans, but not enough to kill. We looked but didn't touch.

 Allow me to intruduce Señor Frog. Señor Frog is a frog of excellent size as you can tell by the hand gently holding his back legs. These fellows have the extremely disconcerting habit of crying like a baby when they get caught. This one was content to be gently handled and didn't make a sound even when Geordie and I petted him. Quite gentlemanly of him really. The size of frogs we saw ranged from about this big, O  (a baby tree frog), to the monstrous fellow below.