Lost and found: the rediscovery that

became ‘Leonardo DiCaprio’s frog’

The longnose harlequin frog, not seen since the 1980s, was found again in 2016 and has since
become a symbol of defiance against mining plans in the Intag Valley

The longnose harlequin frog, Atelopus longirostris, is native to Ecuador’s Intag Valley. Photograph: Luis A.
Coloma/Centro Jambatu
Graeme Green
Thu 29 Dec 2022
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/29/leonardo-dicaprio-
longnose-harlequin-frog-copper-mining-ecuador

“A t first, it’s hard to believe – you need to convince yourself it’s not a

dream,” says the Ecuadorian biologist Elicio Tapia. “When you find a species thought to
be extinct, after searching for so many years, it’s unbelievable to see it again.”
Tapia was part of the team that in 2016 “rediscovered” the rare longnose harlequin
frog (Atelopus longirostris) – a striking little yellow-spotted frog with a pointed snout
that hadn’t been seen since 1989 and was presumed extinct.
The endemic frog, first described by zoologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1868, was once
abundant in Ecuador’s biodiverse Intag Valley region in the tropical Andes. But in the
late 1980s it rapidly disappeared, along with around a dozen other amphibian species.

Tapia spotted the frog during an amphibian survey funded by the environmental
organisation Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag, and led by Dr Luis Coloma
from the Jambatu Center for Amphibian Research and Conservation in Quito. “When I
was a child, I used to swim in the Esmeraldas River, where I’d see many specimens
of Atelopus longirostris,” recalls Tapia. “So this species was very familiar. When I saw it,
I knew immediately it was an atelopus. Up close, it was easy to see the characteristic
coloration [brown with yellow spots], the shape of the bones, and the long nose with a
yellow spot on its tip.
“There was an immense sense of joy, relief, and excitement. I ran downhill to share this
amazing discovery with the others. But after the excitement, you confront the reality:
most of the time there’s no support for protection, there’s no national conservation
plan, and you quickly realise the species’ survival is at risk.”
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has moved the longnose harlequin
frog from “extinct” to “critically endangered”. But having been brought back from the
dead, as it were, the frog hasn’t been given much time to rest – it currently finds itself at
the heart of a big legal battle to protect Intag from copper mining.
“The longnose harlequin frog is becoming a powerful and charismatic symbol to help
save Intag,” says Coloma. “Intag is like a Noah’s Ark for biodiversity, and frogs in
particular. The impact of Elicio’s finding was huge.”

Before it was ‘rediscovered’ in 2016, Atelopus longirostris hadn’t been seen since
1988. Photograph: Gustavo Pazmiño Otamendi/PUCE

The longnose harlequin frog, along with a new type of rocket frog discovered in 2019
and named Intag’s resistance rocket frog, has been cited by campaigners in legal
challenges to protect Intag from plans for an opencast copper mine. “Leonardo
DiCaprio has put out several tweets supporting the conservation of the region, so people
are beginning to call the longnose harlequin frog ‘Leonardo DiCaprio’s harlequin frog’,”
says Coloma.

In the meantime, the frog is being monitored in the wild. Jambatu Center has worked
on a successful breeding programme, which has produced 200 lab-raised frogs. A
conservation plan has also been proposed by local communities and wildlife
organisations.

The frogs’ future in the wild, though, will depend on the court’s decision on the copper
mine, which is likely to be delivered in 2023.

“I’d like to see the judge ban mining operations in the Intag region and to see this
species recovered and returned to the forests in many of its historical sites,” says
Coloma. “It’s important for so many reasons: ethical, biological, ecological, economic …
The future will tell us the importance of what we lost if we don’t save species such as
this.”