Originally published in The Manitoban, 2011
This
week I have been bitten by fire ants, termites and a cactus. Now I've got all
that out of the way, I hope to spend the rest of my stay in glorious Puerto
Rico in perfect harmony with nature. I would especially like to harmonize with
the common coqui frog, Eleutherodactylus
coqui. They have a very pretty song.
While
I have not yet seen one, they are the first thing I heard when I set foot on
this fascinating island. Male coquis start singing as soon as the sun begins to
set, currently around 6pm, and they continue singing until the sun comes up
around 6:30am. Males sing to advertise to females and announce their territory
to other males.
Named
onomatopoeically for their song (ko-kee, ko-kee), the coqui belongs to the
genus Eleutherodactylus, a long Greek
name lending itself to over 600 species, meaning “free toes”. This refers to
the fact that members of this genus do not have webbed feet, but have
individual and unattached toes with large pads adapted for climbing. As you
might guess, coqui frogs are arboreal, climbing trees as the sun sets to hunt
insects until dawn, at which time they retreat to their hide-outs for the day.
Just like teenagers and goths.
Coqui
frogs are very small, ranging from 15 to 80mm in length. In fact, coqui
means “little frog”. Unlike most frogs, fertilization is internal and coquis do
not lay their eggs in water but terrestrially in moist areas. The young develop
within the egg over a period of about 17 to 26 days and hatch as miniature adults
with very small tails that disappear shortly after hatching. The tadpole stage
occurs within the egg so there is no free-living larval stage as in most frogs.
There are also developmental differences; some of the stages that free-living
tadpoles pass through are absent in the coquis.
Coquis
reproduce year-round but the majority of breeding takes place during the rainy
season from about September to December. Male coquis guard the eggs and remain
at the nest for the first few days after their eggs hatch, but by that time, the females are
long gone. Females usually lay between four and six clutches of
anywhere from 16 to 41 eggs per clutch – with a schedule like that, it's no
wonder she doesn't stick around!
For
the taxonomically inclined, coquis belong to the order Anura and family
Leptodactylidae. In Puerto Rico there are 17 species of coqui frog; however,
only two of them actually have the 'ko-kee' song for which they are named.
Three species of coqui, web-footed, mottled and golden, are believed to be
extinct. The golden coqui, E. jasperi, is (was?) the only member of the
family Leptodactylidae that gives birth to live young.
Common
coquis are found on St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands,
Dominican Republic, Vieques, and Florida. They are considered an invasive
species in Hawaii, where efforts to eradicate the little guys are under way.
The common coqui is doing quite well on the island of Puerto Rico, and Puerto
Ricans like it that way – the coqui symbol is used by many local businesses and
institutions and is advertised as a source of local pride.
In
fact, in my tireless efforts to bring you only the most well-informed articles,
I drove all the way to Rincon to check out an Oktoberfest (yeah, I know,
right?) celebration sponsored by one of Puerto Rico's two local breweries, Old
Harbor Brewery based in San Juan, so that I could sample their Coqui Lager.
Coquis are great, but I liked the pale ale better. At that point, I didn't know
what animal that ale was named after, but there is a Puerto Rican boa that's
endangered, so stay tuned next week for the low down on that lovely creature.
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