Ranitomeya fantastica

Ranitomeya fantastica
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Dendrobatidae
Genus:	Ranitomeya
Species:	R. fantastica
Binomial name
Ranitomeya fantastica (Boulenger, 1884)
Synonyms
Dendrobates fantasticus Boulenger, 1884 Dendrobates phantasticus Werner, 1901 Ranitomeya fantasticus Anonymous, 1985 Ranitomeya fantastica Bauer, 1988

The red-headed poison frog, crowned poison frog, or fantastic poison frog (Ranitomeya fantastica) is a frog. It lives in Peru.

Body

The adult frog is about 20 mm long from nose to rear end. The whole front of the body and head and front legs are bright yellow with white toward the back. The rest of the body is black with gray marks.

Home

People have only seen this frog in forests that were cut down and have been growing back for a long time and in forests that have never been cut down that have many trees with holes full of water. This frog is awake during the day. People have seen this frog between 180 and 1200 meters above sea level. Some R. fantastica frogs live in trees all the time and some do not.

Young

The female frog lays eggs under leaves. The male frog moves the eggs. He puts each egg in a different place so that the tadpoles will not eat the eggs or each other. If there are too many tadpoles in one place, they kill and eat each other.

Danger

Scientists believe this frog is in some danger of dying out. People catch it to sell. People cut down forests to make farms, for example for bananas and coffee.

One of the places this frog lives is a protected park: Reserva Nacional Allpahuayo Mishana.