Figure 17.

Golden toads, this pair in amplexus in the cloud forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica, have never been seen since 1989. The small and isolated populations, which occupied only a few square mi les of cloud forest, are now apparently extinct, and their social behavior has never been studied in detail. Many biologists have searched for them in vain. At large pools of rainwater in the rainy season, as many as several hundred males were once seen at one time; for the lucky few who saw them, the sight was unforgettable.