REDISCOVERED – ANNOUNCED 2003
Costa Rican – Variable Harlequin Toad (Atelopus varius), also known as the clown frog.
The Variable Harlequin Frog suffered dramatic declines throughout Costa Rica and Panama and was thought to have gone extinct by the mid 1990’s, before a remnant population was discovered in western Costa Rica in 2003. A second population was subsequently discovered further south, and is the subject of a monitoring program to determine what sets this population apart from those that disappeared around it. The species is listed as critically endangered, and is thought to be extinct in Panama.