Red-Eyed Tree Frog

By far the most iconic animal of Central-America is the red-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas). This vividly colored and lovely animal is a typical rainforest dweller. But because they are nocturnal, it is hard to find them in the wild. So the easiest way to see them is in a ranario. (Unless you want to wander through a dark rainforest at night).  Here we are at the Monteverde Ranario, where they have a big collection of frogs.  The only setback is that the frogs here are living in glass “boxes”, so photographing them is not easy. On the other hand, they give you all the time of the world to make photos and you can visit the Ranario twice with one ticket.

We saw this particular frog in the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. They only have four species, but you can get quite close to them, and there is no glass between you and the frogs. Although it was late afternoon, and the frogs were still sleeping, this one got fed up with us pointing our big lenses at him and decided to move spot. So he opened his eyes and showed his beautiful colors. By the way, this is how they try to startle their predators which allows them to jump for safety.

Although you see a lot of big pictures of the red-eyed tree frog, they are just 4 to 7 cm long, and despite their vivid colors on the photo, they are quite dull when asleep.