Critically Endangered
These frogs are from Chile, but as they have not been seen since 1981 it is assumed they are likely extinct. The suspectd reason for their loss is the fungal disease chytridiomycosis. These frogs are very unusual. The female lays her eggs and then is done. The male waits until the embryos start to move, about a week after they are laid. Then he sort of breathes them up off the damp ground and into his vocal sac. They stay there nice and safe until they have developed enough their gut is fully functioning. At that point he hops off to a body of water and coughs them our so they can finish their transformation into frogs. This painting is actually of a "pregnant" male, hence the goiter looking throat. I saw video of Southern Darwin's Frogs, and you could see the babies moving like crazy. The Southern Darwin's Frog coughs up small fully formed frogs rather than tadpoles. Those are listed as endangered, not quite critically endangered. I have not seen any pictures of these, just the Southern Darwin ones, but this should be about right. They look a lot like sad little leaves and I imagine they would blend quite well with vegetation.
We decided to have Mother's Day take-out dinner today rather than deal with the insanity that will probably happen on Sunday. Plus, Sunday will be a busy day for us and the restaurant we wanted is not open on Sunday. I am kind of hopeful though that on Mother's Day I can get either my husband or one of my kids to take the blind dog downstairs to go outside and I can sleep in upstairs. I have to get up when he wakes up, quite often before any of the rest of the family wakes up. I don't mind, but I do miss being able to sleep in. When he was not blind, he could walk down the stairs just fine and safely. He also was better at waiting to get up until we did. He has never been a confident dog, but he was better before going blind. I should get going to bed now, blind dog is starting to get himself ready for bed and he really hates getting woken up in order to go back to bed. I do too, so I understand him. Ok, in all honesty, I just plain hate being woken up. Our beagle/corgi is very much like me. She and I don't like getting up in the morning, almost never eat breakfast but love dinner time, and we like snacks and naps.