Transparent Frogs in the Dark
Travel Photography Central American Isthmus
Spider on Heliconia
 
  Travel Photography > Isthmus > El Valle de Anton

Mario, a biologist and freelance herp guide, knows the calls of each species, and has this knack for locating anything in the dark.  Almost immediately, we begin scanning the trees for frogs.  This river is crawling with life at night.  I turn around – a basilisk is staring back at me in a tree.  I look down – a half-foot cane toad in the water, cockroaches on the bank, katydids and caterpillars on the branches, ants up the vines, snakes on the riverside, butterflies in repose dangling from leaves, wolf spiders resting in plain sight.

Quite quickly, we find a frog.  He stares at us from a small leaf on a tree hanging over the river.  This frog is a glass frog, which means he is from a particular order of frogs, of which many species are see-through.  Some are so clear, that their bodies are like aquariums of organs.

Beyond their transparency, glass frogs tend toward the petite, making their features – eyes, legs, mouth, face – almost cartoonishly anthropomorphic.  Our lamps all flood down on this tiny animal, and we crouch in to look.  This creature, with tiny arms, quaint fingers, turns. He looks up at the black sky, and he appears like a proud man who has lived a thousand years and knows everything, and has braced for a great sorrow.

Frogs exist in nearly every environment where man exists, and they thrive in our folktales and proverbs.  Throughout human history, regardless of culture, the frog represents unexpected wisdom, unseen wisdom or cunning.  In the various frog princess fairytales of Europe (which inspired The Frog Prince), a man who chooses the frog is rewarded with an enchanted princess.  In cultures around the world, the frog often possesses a cunning intellect or knowledge about the world that only his owner sees, or that he only reveals at an advantageous moment.

ArrowA spider hunts on a heliconia bract above a swamp in Panama.

 

Next

12345678910111213

 

Explore more in the Isthmus:
Salt Creek Zapatilla Cays Glass Frog Basilisk Lizard
Isla Bastimentos, Panama Zapatillas Cays, Panama El Valle de Anton Cuero Y Salado
Canopy Kuna Islands Image Peten
Soberania National Park, Panama San Blas Islands Monkey River, Belize Peten, Guatemala
Howling Coast Granada Street Vendor Jungle in the Sky
Pacific Coast Nicaragua Granada, Nicaragua Volcan Mombacho  
   

Isthmus Special Content
Maps
Central America Map
Honduras Map
Nicaragua Map
Panama Map

Moleskine
Belize Moleskine Journal
Nicaragua Moleskine Journal
El Valle Moleskine Journal

Follow Notes from the Road

 

Nearctic Regions

Desert Southwest
Great Plains
Great Basin
Pacific Northwest
Desert Mexico
Sierra Range
Atlantic Seaboard

Palearctic Regions

The Dry World
Iberian Peninsula
Northern Seas
Gaul

Oceania

Neotropic Regions

Isthmus
Amazon Basin
Andean Slopes
West Indies

More

Online Travel Journal
Guana Cay Blog
About Erik Gauger
Contact Erik
Bird Life List

©2013 . All text, photographs, illustrations and web design created by the author