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

[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.