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The Manduriacu glass frog
(Nymphargus manduriacu) lives in a
reserve in northern Ecuador and is
threatened by mining.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSÉ
VIEIRA, TROPICAL
HERPING/USFQ

Corruption, gold mining threaten a new see-through glass frog

The Manduriacu glass frog’s tiny habitat lies within a mining concession—and it needs urgent protection
to survive, conservationists say.

BY DOUGLAS MAIN
N A T I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C : https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/03/translucent-
glass-frog-species-found-in-ecuador/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-
email::src=ngp::cmp=Editorial::add=Animals_20190314::rid=9356123955

PUBLISHED MARCH 6, 2019

A L O N G S I D E A P R I S T I N E stream in the foothills of the Ecuadorian Andes, a team of

researchers has found a graceful glass frog that's new to science.
Unlike its close relatives, this amphibian has abundant yellow spots on its back, and unique webless
fingers. As with other glass frogs, this species has somewhat translucent skin, lives most of its life in
trees, and descends to the water to breed.

The researchers have dubbed it the Manduriacu glass frog (Nymphargus manduriacu), named after its
home, the Río Manduriacu Reserve. It’s found only within a small patch of a single river valley, at an
elevation of about 4,000 feet. Males of the species emit high-pitched chirps to find mates.

Map of Ecuador showing the location of Río Manduriacu Reserve, the

type locality of Nymphargus manduriacu sp. nov.

https://peerj.com/articles/6400/

Even though the animal lives within a private reserve, the area is part of a mining concession.
Exploration for gold and copper already threatens its continued survival, according to the study,
published recently in the journalPeerJ.
The creation of mining concessions has “increased at an alarming rate” in the country, says study
lead author Juan Manuel Guayasamin Ernest, a researcher at Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
This frog is one of many species that could be imperiled by this activity, much of which is taking
place in the Andes, home to many endemic and as-yet unrecorded species.

Undermining conservation
In Ecuador, companies can obtain rights from the government to underground resources like gold,
even on land they do not own. They are, however, legally required to consult with the landowners—
in this case, a conservation group called Fundacion EcoMinga—and the local community.

That didn’t happen in this case. The government sold the concession to Cerro Quebrado, a
subsidiary of the world’s largest mining company, Australia-based BHP. (BHP didn’t respond to a
request for comment.)

That could open up the company to a lawsuit, says Esteban Falconi, an environmental and human
rights attorney in Ecuador. But the court system is influenced by the executive branch, which has
pushed mining in recent years after oil development failed to prop up the economy as hoped,
explains Roo Vandegrift, an ecologist at the University of Oregon who has worked in the country.

Like all glass frogs, the newfound creature has

somewhat translucent skin and lives in trees.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSÉ VIEIRA,
TROPICAL HERPING/USFQ

Corruption has been a problem in Ecuador, and large companies exert influence in the country,
which has to date been spared the large-scale mining projects seen in neighboring Colombia and
Peru. Ecuador’s former vice president, Jorge Glas, was sentenced in December 2017 to six years in
prison for corruption. In that case, Glas was convicted of accepting $13.5 million in bribes from a
Brazilian construction company.

The new push for mining alarms conservationists, as this type of extraction has had “devastating
impacts” in other countries within the Amazon Basin, Vandergrift says. It also goes against
Ecuador’s constitution, which, unlike any other, grants certain unalienable rights to nature.
The researchers recommend that the newly discovered glass frog be listed as critically endangered
by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
For conservationists involved, it’s emblematic of the larger threat facing Ecuador’s rare animals
from mining.

There are nearly 600 known amphibian species in the country, and perhaps 20 percent or more
remain undescribed, says Luis Coloma, director of the Jambatu Center for Research and
Conservation of Amphibians in Ecuador, who wasn’t part of the team that wrote the paper.

The study serves as “a loud outcry to protect this new species and other critically endangered
amphibians… especially from mining activities,” Coloma says.

Doug Main is a senior writer and editor at National Geographic focusing on animals and wildlife.