The Colombian Four-eyed Frog (Pleurodema brachyops) is a small chubby "toad-like" frog found from Central Panama down into Colombia, Venezuela and across the northern part of the Guyanan Shield.
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| range map derived from iNaturalist.org (2024) |
Although they look somewhat similar to the Spadefoots of North America, they are actually more closely related to the widespread South and Central American "White-lipped Frogs" (Leptodactylidae).
They get their common name four-eyed from from an unusual defensive behavior. When threatened, they point their broad nose down, raising their hind legs and show enlarged "eye-spots" on the rear of their torso to the prospective predator. It is assumed the eye spots contrasting with the bright red thighs attract the attention of a predator, making the predator think they are a much larger animal. Here's a photo of the posterior side of a calling frog showing the contrasting dark spots on the rear of the body.
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| Photo by Miguel Diaz Anaya |
| used under Creative Commons License granted in this iNaturalist record. |
The call of the Colombian Four-eyed Frog is a nasal honking sound. The calls are made from shallow puddles in grassy areas after rains.
Colombian Four-eyed Frog calls
As I was trying to record this Four-eyed Frog calling, a couple of other species were calling next to it making it hard to isolate the target species. You can hear the honking of the four-eyed frogs along with the "ray-gun peuw" calls of the Tungara Frog (Engystomops pustulosus) and the loud trill of the Panamanian Granular Toad (Rhinella centralis).
Colombian Four-eyed Frog and friends
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© Chris Harrison 2024
iNaturalist available at https://www.inaturalist.org/. Accessed August 12, 2024.
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