G’day guys my name is Jay and I’m a wildlife photographer and conservation story teller working with the Khamai Foundation in Ecuador.

I wanted to share our exciting story of the rediscovery of the Mindo Harlequin Toad to try and spread some good conservation news!

High in the Ecuadorian Andes, in a tiny section of the Mindo cloud forest we found survivors of a species thought to be wiped out by Chyrtridiomycosis in 1989.

We also found tadpoles of this species and for the first time in history we were able to photograph and document this stage of their life cycle. Some of these tadpoles were transferred to a special breeding facility to create an ex-situ colony in a safe environment.

This finding was used as evidence to apply for emergency grants to purchase and protect this area of fragile biodiversity from destruction and deforestation. Uh