Agalychnis callidryas
red-eyed tree frog
Photo by John Netherton

Red-eyed tree frogs (Agalychnis callidryas) have almost human-like expressions, and for that reason people love to attribute human emotions to these colorful animals. They normally stay high in their forest canopy homes of Mexico, Honduras, and Panama, only coming down during the evenings of the rainy season to mate. In the misty tropical twilight, males call to females and usually agree to be taken for a ride (on the female's back) to the destination of her choice. During mating, the male holds the female tightly in what could easily be described as a "hug." Is this frog romance, or just instinctive behavior? Only the frogs know.

You can be sure, however, that nothing is less romantic than a denuded and destroyed forest. The Rainforest Alliance is proving, through both research and action, that forest destruction is uneconomic, as well. Through finding economic solutions to the problem of deforestation, we are laying the foundation for productive human -- and frog -- communities in the Tropics.