The first documented acoustic record of the song of the Osteocephalus omega frog was made in the municipality of Acevedo in Huila. The finding marks a scientific advance in the Andean Amazon Corridor thanks to community monitoring.
The record was obtained in the humid mountains of the Amazon foothills, where the species had not been documented before in Colombia. Local monitoring groups, such as the Asociación Ambiental y Agropecuaria EcoSan Luis and the Grupo de Monitoreo Comunitario de Biodiversidad YaguaEte, captured the song of this tree frog with golden iris.
Carlos Costa, vice president of Conservation International Colombia, noted that the finding results from a long-term intervention with community support. “The acoustic record represents a scientific milestone,” he said.
The frog’s presence in shade-grown coffee plantations confirms the compatibility between sustainable agriculture and conservation. Alessandro Tapiero and Carlos Vargas, members of the community groups, pointed out that monitoring allows evidence-based strategies to protect the habitat.
The species, described in 2019, lives between 450 and 1,900 meters altitude in Putumayo, Caquetá and Huila. Its song will help study its reproduction and abundance without capturing it.
