Chapter 04

Amphibians

Amphibians of the cloud forest — from the leaf litter to the stream's edge.

Amphibians are the vertebrates most tightly bound to humid microhabitat, and an Andean cloud forest is largely made of it: leaf litter, moss, bromeliad tanks, wet rock and the margins of streams.

Several of the lineages here have dispensed with the tadpole, laying eggs that hatch directly into miniature adults. Freed from standing water, they occupy the whole slope rather than the few places that hold a pond.

The chapter is small enough to list its species directly rather than splitting them by family. When the list grows, the families can come back.