What might seem like comments from a man with a tinfoil hat happens to be very exciting news for our frog room. On March 2nd, 2024, lying in the “blackwater extract” soaking dish in the enclosure of our Dendropsophus arndti was their first clutch of eggs! This frog is a new arrival to the hobby, known as the True Giraffe Clown Tree Frog. How new? It is a species of “clown tree frogs” first discovered and given a scientific name just recently: in 2017! The specific name arndti honors professor Rudolf G. Arndt, in recognition of his financial support for research and nature conservation that led to the discovery of this amazing frog!
About a year and a half ago, we were thrilled to obtain several of these frogs as small froglets. They grow up to have a variable pattern of brown and gold colors, and very often a giraffe-like reticulated pattern- on a FROG! Those little froglets were believed to be the first to be born in captivity in the world! Their parents were rescued from a plot of land in Peru, near a tributary of the Amazon River. That property was about to be burned and clear-cut so it could be used for other human activities.
Now all grown up, we suspect we have two females and one male. After almost three months of experimenting with putting them in and out of our “rain chamber” for various days at a time, the females had plumped up with eggs. Just when we were almost ready to give up, along came our happy surprise: rather than in the rain chamber itself, they decided to lay their eggs right in their vivarium’s water dish very unexpectedly. We couldn’t be more thrilled!
Giraffe Eggs