Scientists in Ecuador are locked in a race against time to learn more about the country’s unique amphibian biodiversity, as the habitats of its cornucopia of species are eroded.
Ecuador is one of South America’s smallest countries but boasts hundreds of amphibian species. The country has 281.3 such species per 100,000 sq km, according to the BioWeb database from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE). This, the highest density in the world, has earned Ecuador the nickname “country of frogs”.
To date, various taxonomy efforts (such as BioWeb and AmphibiaWeb) have accounted for more than 700 different frog species in Ecuador.
Amphibians, which include toads, frogs, salamanders and caecilians, play important roles in the functioning of ecosystems. As consumers and prey, they are an intermediate link in energy and nutrient chains.
Frogs have cultural value for Indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon, such as the Shuar and the Achuar. Many also carry strong venom that could have medicinal properties. “That is why Ecuador is privileged,” the biologist Andrea Terán tells Dialogue Earth. She administrates the Life Bank at the Jambatu Centre for Amphibian Research and Conservation, based in Ecuador’s capital, Quito.
But while the country continues to reveal new species, the clock is ticking: habitat loss, disease and climate change threaten to wipe out this biological wealth before it can be studied.
“When you go to investigate all the groups – fauna, flora and in our case amphibians – you begin to understand why these places need to be protected,” explains Terán.
A biodiversity hotspot
Ecuador is one of Earth’s 17 megadiverse countries. Among its amphibian fauna, 49% of the species identified by BioWeb are unique to the country. Last January, scientists described seven species endemic to Ecuador whose lineages separated 21 million years ago. The finding has helped to reveal Ecuador’s evolutionary depth.
Santiago Ron, an Ecuadorian evolutionary biologist, PUCE professor and curator of amphibians at the university’s zoology museum, says the country’s unique natural history has helped diverse species to thrive: the uplifting of the Tropical Andes 25 million years ago, as well as Ecuador’s location between that mountain range, the Amazon and the Pacific Ocean, have created a variety of landscapes, climatic gradients and ecological niches. All these factors drive evolution.
In addition, Ecuador is on the equator, which results in a relatively stable, tropical climate with year-round water availability. These are ideal conditions for a group as dependent on humidity as amphibians.
Thanks to these factors, Ecuador has the third most amphibian species in the world after Brazil and Colombia, which are far larger countries. Inside Ecuador’s hyperdiverse Yasuní Rainforest, there are 140 amphibian species just within the Tiputini reserve’s 6.5 sq km, as recorded by the Tiputini Biodiversity Station (EBT).
The majority of Ecuador’s amphibians are concentrated in the Andean region, according to BioWeb. Many frogs live at altitudes of 4,100 metres above sea level “and a little higher”, says Diego Cisneros, who directs the University of San Francisco de Quito’s zoology museum.
There are also areas with mountains older than the Andes, such as the Kutukú and Cóndor mountain ranges. These are about 150 million years old and, for a long time, remained unstudied. “They are like lost worlds of amphibians,” says Ron.
Time running out
Luis Coloma, director of the Jambatu Centre, believes Ecuador could be home to more than 900 amphibian species. At the current rate of 13 new species discovered per year, however, cataloguing all of them will take another 15-20 years. He fears there will not be enough time. Approximately 60% of Ecuador’s amphibians are at risk of extinction; the global figure is thought to be just over 40%.
Mining and agriculture cause deforestation and habitat fragmentation, explains Cisneros. Meanwhile, the use of pesticides and synthetic fertilisers is affecting the chemistry of soils, he adds, which also affects amphibians. These animals have been badly impacted by the global spread of chytridiomycosis, too. This deadly fungal disease has triggered 90 presumed extinctions among amphibian species.
In February 2025, Ecuador’s National Biodiversity Institute (Inabio) announced four new species in the far-north province of Carchi. One of them was given an eloquent Latin name: Pristimantis praemortuus (previously dead). “Many species are being described when they are already on the verge of extinction,” Mario Yáñez, a researcher at Inabio, tells Dialogue Earth.
In the Cordillera del Cóndor, a small mountain range in Ecuador’s southern Zamora-Chinchipe province, researchers from the University of San Francisco de Quito are working to identify 24 new species. Some may have already lost their habitat prior to being formally recognised due to illegal mining and disorderly agricultural expansion, says Cisneros. BioWeb’s frog number 700, Hyloscirtus maycu, is named after the province’s Maycú reserve in which it was discovered. This reserve is reportedly under threat from illegal mining activities.
Terán stresses that “any type of mining involves risks” in such a diverse country. She was part of a legal action in 2020 that temporarily halted the Llurimagua copper mining project in Imbabura province, northern Ecuador. The project’s impact studies had omitted threatened species, such as the longnose harlequin frog (Atelopus longirostris). On 11 December, however, a government official announced Llurimagua will be put out for tender this year.
Symbol of hope
Despite the threats, recent years have also brought good news. In the past decade, five species previously classified as extinct have been rediscovered. Last year, scientists found two specimens of Pristimantis ruidus – a species believed to have been extinct for a century.
But no story has been as emblematic as that of the black jambato (Atelopus ignescens). A common species in the Andes until the 1980s, it disappeared in 1988. After decades of fruitless searches, it was declared extinct. But in May 2016, the Jambatu Centre announced its reappearance in Angamarca, in the central province of Cotopaxi.
The black jambato has been adopted as an emblematic species by the local community, which celebrates an annual festival in its honour on the date it was found, 21 April. There is also a conservation programme, Alianza Jambato, led by the biologist María del Carmen Vizcaíno.
The rediscovery of this species has opened up new fields of biomedical research. In a laboratory at PUCE, the microbiologist Miryan Rivera studies the secretions of the black jambato’s skin in search of peptides with cancer-treatment potential. “We are finding frogs that are very efficient at killing malignant cells without damaging healthy cells,” she tells Dialogue Earth. Rivera’s goal is for the findings to generate direct benefits for human health.
Ron says Ecuador needs to recognise and value what it has. He laments the negative views some have of the nation’s frogs. He recalls the time he excitedly showed his father a frog he had found as a child: his father reacted angrily and described it as “filthy”.
“There are those beliefs,” he says. “Sometimes, people have a negative view of amphibians. That affected me at the time, but my fascination with frogs was stronger. I knew they were wonderful animals.”
Terán shares that view: “Amphibians show how megadiverse Ecuador is. If the basis of taxonomy is knowing how much wealth we have and how to conserve it, then let’s listen to the frogs.”
