Dendrobates pumilio frog biodiversity

Thoughts on Bastimentos D. pumilio

It has been a long known fact that D. pumilio that comes from the island of Bastimentos are very diverse in color pattern. The colors range through Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and even White. Again, there can be large spots, small spots and sometimes, even no spots. For the most part the color on the belly is white, but they can occasionally have some amount of the dorsal coloration on the belly, and even the white of their bellies can range from a clean white, to white with a greenish tinge to it. What was unique about this island is that all of these different colored frogs could be found living side by side. That’s not all, it was found that two “red” parents or any combination for that matter, could produce the range color in their froglets. While this has been part of the reason why Bastimentos frogs have become so well known in the Dart Frog Hobby, there has been some confusion that the entire island produces this entire range of frogs, and this is not the case. While there are sections of the island that has populations of frogs that do exhibit this “range” of color, there are other populations on Bastimentos that produce none of this drastic color diversity. The dominant coloration in these populations seems to be red/orange. As one travels from the western end of the island toward the middle of the island, the frogs only vary slightly in the depth of red, but there was no evidence of the color diversity that the island is famed for. Knowing this, the use of color to depict a form (i.e. Red Bastimentos, Golden Bastimentos, Orange Bastimentos, etc.) in the case of Bastimentos D. pumilio might be misleading. A froglet that would be red in the wild can fade to orange in captivity due to an insufficient diet, but to perpetuate this “line” as a different form of Orange Bastimentos is inaccurate. Since there are differences among the different populations on Bastimentos, it is important to keep the groups intact. If collection, or (at least) import data is available, we should be trying to preserve the integrity of the original group. When there is an importation of frogs, there a better chance that the animals from that single importation share a common collection site, as opposed to animals from many different importations. In the early to mid 90’s Bastimentos pumilio were imported by the hundreds. There are still a number of animals from these importations present in the hobby today. It may not be a good idea to mix these bloodlines with more recent imports. Try to find out as much as you can on the lineage of a group. We feel this would be the best was to maintain the integrity of the different forms, even from a single island. If you have any comments, or questions, we would be glad to hear them. Please e-mail them to info@pumilio.com.

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RANITAS ROJAS DE BOCAS DEL TORO

Cross-Breeding of Distinct Color Morphs of the Strawberry Poison Frog (Dendrobates pumilio) from the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama

SOBRE EL HÁBITAT DE LAS RANAS ROJAS DE BOCAS SE ESTÁ ESPECULANDO CON LA TIERRA Y LUCRANDO Y PARECE QUE NO HAY LÍMITES A ESTA MASACRE NATURAL.