La Rana Sabanera: Dendropsophus molitor

[asakiyume]

When we visited Bogotá in 2018, Wakanomori noticed that the manhole covers had frogs on them:



I always meant to find out the story behind the frog--was it a particular frog? Why a frog? But I never did.

Then the other day, Juegasiempre (also known as DjLu), one of the graffiti artists/muralistas whose work we became acquainted with on that trip, posted this beautiful frog on Twitter: la rana sabenera, Dendropsophus molitor. (Wikipedia tells me in English it's called the green dotted tree frog.) He posted that it used to be very common in the ravines of Bogotá, but now you can hardly find it. (Original tweet here.)



I took it into my head that this MUST be the frog on the manhole covers and finally set about to find the answer.

... Well, it's not. The manhole frog is just a generalized frog, not any particular frog, but I found out that frogs have been on Bogotá's manhole covers for more than a hundred years, getting redesigns now and then. Some people thought the design was of a toad (sapo), so the workers for the Empresa de Acueducto y Alcantarillado (Bogota's water and sewer company) would sometimes be called sapos. This is unfortunate because several years of watching telenovelas has taught me that that's also what you call a snitch.

There's a Facegroup page for people who want to preserve them--it's got some photos:





As for D. molitor, it's found only in Colombia. Females are larger than males, and they can grow to be about 70 mm. They can be green or brown, and some have stripes or lines that can be black, yellow, or blue. Although Wikipedia lists it as a species of least concern, one article I found said it's threatened in parts of Colombia by the introduction of another type of frog that competes for the same habitat.

Here's a cutie from Wikipedia (link):



Live long and prosper, little guy!

Resources consulted

"Conoce a la colorida rana que habita los humedales de Bogotá," Obervatorio Ambiental de Bogotá, 14 September 2020.

"Una rana nueva llega al acueducto," El Tiempo, 5 October 1991.

"Preservemos las Tapas del Acueducto de Bogotá; Disprivatizar el Acueducto" (Facebook page)

"Dendropsophus molitor," Wikipedia.

Comments

[sonia]

Thank you for the adorable photos and info! I like that their access covers have frogs to remind people to care for the environment.

In the Chilean Spanish I learned as a kid, ranas are toads and sapos are frogs. I guess my parents had it backwards?! Or I got my meanings crossed somewhere along the way.

[asakiyume]

I don't know! Multiple dictionaries give "rana" as frog and "sapo" as toad, but it could be that some places use terms differently? Since I've come to Spanish very late in life, I'm relying on other people's expertise.

[lilysea]

Thank you for sharing! ^_^

I saw a green and gold striped frog in my frog pond this morning - it was almost certainly a Motorbike Frog. [They come in a wide variety of colours, including green and gold stripes]

https://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/frogwatch/frogs/motorbike-frog

[asakiyume]

What a fabulous-looking frog! I love the horizontal stripes!

And thank YOU for sharing

[wayfaringwordhack]

What a cool-looking frog. And what a funny name.

Not knowing you were from Australia--and generally not paying attention to the link or title info--when I read the first line of the article ("The south-west's most commonly encountered frog), I thought, "huh, sad, but I don't think I ever saw one growing up." I grew up in the U.S. Southwest. :D

[lilysea]

^_^

It's called the motorbike frog because it's call sounds like a motorbike - you can listen to the sound at the link

[wayfaringwordhack]

Yes, it does! :D

[lilysea]

There have been cases of people calling police on "bikies hooning around at 3am" that turned out to be frogs!

[wayfaringwordhack]

*LOL* I can imagine how an army/chorus of Motorbike frogs would sound. In a book I recently read with my kids about becoming a spy, the author recounts an episode when the US wanted to install bugs in a building in Africa. Fearful that the noise of the drills at night would alert neighbors to the nefarious activity, someone had the idea to collect bags of bullfrogs and release them around the building so that their croaking would mask the operation's noise. The plan worked, and thanks to the bullfrogs, no one reported the incident.

[asakiyume]

And now, thanks to your and wayfaringwordhack's conversation, I've listened to it as well, and how marvelous! Must share it with my husband (who like motorbikes).

[lilysea]

Also check out the call of one of the other frogs in my suburb, the moaning frog!

https://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/frogwatch/frogs/moaning-frog

[asakiyume]

OMG, like owls! Very atmospheric!

Frogs are just wonderful.

[lilysea]

There are some great frogs in my state

not in my suburb, but these two are amazing

Hooting frog
A low pitched owl-like 'hoot' repeated slowly.
https://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/frogwatch/frogs/hooting-frog

Quacking frog
Similar to the sound of a duck quacking. Often call in discrete bursts, and males will mirror the number of quacks a neighbor gives.
https://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/frogwatch/frogs/quacking-frog

[asakiyume]

Wow, between the motorbikes, the owls, and the ducks, one could create a whole soundscape just using frogs!

[sovay]

The manhole frog is just a generalized frog, not any particular frog, but I found out that frogs have been on Bogotá's manhole covers for more than a hundred years, getting redesigns now and then.

That's so neat! Is there a reason for it, or did the city a hundred years ago just think it looked good? (If so, they were right.)

As for D. molitor, it's found only in Colombia.

It's very beautiful.

Current Music: Pete Seeger: Frog Went a-Courting

Aaaaaah, I have that song on and off in my head a couple of times a month, I have no idea why, thanks.

[asakiyume]

In the articles I looked at, no one said explicitly why there are frogs on the manhole covers, but at least one of the made an off-the-cuff reference to the association between frogs and water--which is interesting, because I think if someone had said to me, "Name a creature associated with water that we could use as a manhole cover," I probably would have said fish. But frog strikes me as a better choice--salamander would also be good--because its amphibious nature puts it more in our terrestrial world than fish. Amphibians are such great liminal creatures!

Re: Pete Seeger's Frog Went a-Courting--I picked it to listen to for this entry :-) I love the song. Have you ever heard Sam Hinton's version? That's the one I heard in my childhood--on the very album featured as the image for that Youtube video. I would take it out of the library and listen to it.

I really loved this picturebook of it, too.

[wayfaringwordhack]

I have never heard the song, but I like it. I do wonder why there are pills scattered all over that album cover image... :-/

[asakiyume]

I think they have to be supposed to be candies? Since all of this is supposed to be stuff a kid would like (peanuts, a whistle, gum, jacks--things a kid would have in their pocket--and the album is very old. But they sure do look like pills :(

[wayfaringwordhack]

Yes, it is the two-toned, shiny look that really gives that medical vibe, not really like Mike & Ike for example.

[cmcmck]

I have to admit that drain covers also fascinate me!

[asakiyume]

It's good to be a person of many fascinations! It cheers the soul when people decide that some humble everyday object--like a manhole cover--is going to be something they're going to make beautiful or fun or interesting in some way.

[wayfaringwordhack]

I love this thought and agree with it. :)

[asakiyume]

And I love that you do, and I think both of us feeling this way is part of why we're friends <3

[wayfaringwordhack]

yes <3

[amaebi]

Beautiful frogs.

Do you have spring peepers out your way? I miss them.

[asakiyume]

We do! I love their song; I would miss it too if I was somewhere they were not.

[wayfaringwordhack]

I don't have the time to dig up photos of the kiddos handling frogs and newts, but I am so happy that we took time to build a small pond in our garden that holds water year round. It is so heartbreaking when the frogs and toads lay their eggs en masse in our seasonal pond, only to have it dry up before they all hatch and complete their metamorphsis.

Back in the day, when I collected things, I collecting ting frog figurines because I have always had a love for frogs. Don't know where it came from; just always found them fascinating and beautiful, from their life-cycle, looks, and songs.

[asakiyume]

I am so glad for your year-round pond.

And I totally get being into frogs. They ARE fascinating and beautiful, and they do have excellent folksongs and lore behind them :-)