Breaking news in the coffee world: frogs! Little tiny ones. Little tiny coffee frogs. A new species of frog has been discovered on Costa Rican coffee farms and they’re so cute I want to scream. But also they may be in danger.
As reported by CBS News, Isthmohyla nacientes, otherwise known as the “coffee frog,” is a tiny greenish nocturnal amphibian that inhabits coffee plantations in the central Pacific region of Costa Rica. These adorable translucent little buddies don’t grow larger than four centimeters long and they can be heard singing from coffee shrubs at night.
It isn’t entirely accurate to say that the species was just discovered. Per CBS, they were first observed in the 1960s, but were incorrectly believed to be another species of tree frog. It wasn’t until 2021 that the coffee frog was rediscovered and only recently after genetic and morphological assessments was it confirmed to be its own unique species.
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Though they inhabit coffee farms, the coffee frog does not actually feed on the coffee cherries. Instead, they feed on the insects that also live within the habitat. But some farming practices are threatening the coffee frog. Some pesticides “could potentially pose a risk to these tiny amphibians” by seeping into the soil and ultimately entering the aquatic systems where coffee frog tadpoles develop. The issue is compounded by additional threats like waste dumping, increased tourism, and vegetation loss in protected areas.
And so we must protect him. We must protect the coffee frog. I mean, I doubt any of the scientists have even licked one yet. Living among all those psychoactive coffee cherries, who knows what sort of time could be had after giving the coffee frog a little smooch.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
