Spotting and hearing the coqui

What's a coqui, you ask?

Well, if ever you had met a vocalizing male the chances are pretty good you wouldn’t have to ask. From the repetitive, whistled, almost strident, loud and distinctive call notes both common and species names of this diminutive tropical frog have been coined.

Although there are several species of coquis now known (and perhaps more to be described) only one species of coqui, Eleutherodactylus coqui, is known to occasionally visit the United States. Until recently the coqui was thought to have been established in the Florida City, Florida and in the New Orleans, Louisiana areas. It is now realized that the small numbers in each of those populations originally and periodically arrive in potted plants brought from their Puerto Rican homeland.

Here's a little male Eleutherodactylus coqui singing his repetetive and musical "coqui" in the crotch of an orange tree in our South Florida yard.

Coincidentally, I had just brought a dozen heliconia plants from a South Florida nursery a day earlier. Equally coincidental was the fact that the little frog was heard almost nightly until silenced by the first cold snap of winter. Because of temperature fluctuations there seems little chance that this traveler will ever become established in the USA.

More photos under the jump...

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.