Living and working in tropical rainforests is often a moldy, uncomfortable, and ridiculous experience. But rainforests are also bursting with life, unparalleled with regard to the shapes, sounds, and strategies of their inhabitants. Almost unimaginable in the amazing diversity of animals and experiences they offer up, these ecosystems regularly surprise even experienced field biologists.

  • Tiny Mantidactylus in Ranomafana National
    Park (frog in the cloud forest on the Eastern
    slope of Madagascar)

Like almost all of the other plants and animals in tropical rainforests, the frogs are a diverse lot. Some are stealthy and slow; others are quick and brightly colored, and leap around the forest floor with apparent abandon. Many have evolved sociality, or territoriality. Some have intricate ways of taking care of their children. In an effort to understand and describe some of this great diversity in rainforest frogs, I have studied both the dart-poison frogs (Dendrobatidae) in Central America, and the Malagasy poison frogs (Mantellinae) in Madagascar.