{"id":731965,"date":"2026-08-08T23:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T23:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/731965\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T23:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T23:40:11","slug":"costa-ricas-recently-discovered-coffee-frogs-sing-in-plantations-but-pesticides-threaten-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/731965\/","title":{"rendered":"Costa Rica’s recently discovered “coffee frogs” sing in plantations, but pesticides threaten them"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tiny greenish, nocturnal frog that thrives in coffee plantations was discovered in Costa Rica’s central Pacific region, where it also faces risks from agrochemicals used in farming.<\/p>\n

Measuring less than 4 centimeters and known as the “spring frog,” AFP reporters observed the dark green-spotted amphibians in San Lorenzo de Tarrazu.<\/p>\n

“It’s a new species of tree frog for science and endemic to Costa Rica,” researcher Wagner Chaves-Acuna told AFP, per the findings of colleagues from the University of Costa Rica and Argentina’s National Council for Scientific and Technical Research.<\/p>\n

\"COSTA<\/p>\n

View of a “Rana de las nacientes” (Isthmohyla nacientes), a newly discovered frog species, in San Jose, Costa Rica, on Aug. 6, 2026.<\/p>\n

Ezequiel BECERRA \/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The tiny frog was first observed in the 1960s, but it was incorrectly identified as another species, according to Costa Rica’s National Alliance for the Conservation of Amphibians and Reptiles<\/a>\u00a0(ANCAR). It was rediscovered and confirmed in 2021 through genetic and morphological studies, the organization said.<\/p>\n

Also nicknamed the “coffee frog,” the species has another distinctive trait: males have a translucent throat that inflates with their short, high-pitched call.<\/p>\n

“At night, when they are most active, you can hear them singing and perched on coffee shrubs,” Chaves-Acuna said.<\/p>\n

Generally, frogs seek out shade, moisture and food in the crops \u2014 but they are not after the coffee berries, feeding instead on the small insects in the habitat.<\/p>\n

\"COSTA<\/p>\n

Costa Rican scientists from the International Institute for Wildlife Conservation and Management at the National University of Costa Rica photograph a newly discovered frog species, “Rana de las nacientes” (Isthmohyla naciente).<\/p>\n

Ezequiel BECERRA \/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Chaves-Acuna warns that pesticide use on coffee plantations could potentially pose a risk to these tiny amphibians.<\/p>\n

“These poisons travel through the air … they seep through the soil and that’s where they enter the aquatic systems where the tadpoles develop,” Chaves-Acuna said.<\/p>\n

The species also faces other threats, including waste dumping, increased tourism and the loss of vegetation due to the invasion of protected areas, according to ANCAR.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

\n Go deeper with The Free Press\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tiny greenish, nocturnal frog that thrives in coffee plantations was discovered in Costa Rica’s central Pacific region,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[10680,1397,60083,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-731965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-costa-rica","tag-environment","tag-frogs","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}