Field Research​

Still, Carlos and his team routinely visit the Golden Poison Frogs’ habitat. They want to learn even more about the frogs’ natural ecology, find out how stable the populations are, and at which density they occur in the forest. They mark each frog they find by implanting a small, coded plastic marker under its skin that reflects UV light. To avoid recording individual frogs twice and thereby falsifying their data, they can use a UV lamp to check if the frogs have been previously caught and recorded. Then, they study each individual’s unique ventral color pattern (the colors on their belly), record their size, and map their position. This research method is called ‘capture/re-capture’. ​