SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
They're the newest amphibious find high atop the Andes mountains.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRISTIMANTIS FROG CALL)
MCCAMMON: In Peru, a research expedition traveled over mountains and through thick forests, going further than any team of scientists.
GERMAN CHAVEZ: It's an area where very few scientific expeditions have reached the lands of this area.
MCCAMMON: Researcher German Chavez is based in Lima.
CHAVEZ: I'm a herpetologist and associate researcher of the Instituto Peruano de Herpatologia.
MCCAMMON: He led the expedition in search of new species of flora and fauna, exploring new areas of the Andes and Amazon for the first time in recorded human history.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRISTIMANTIS FROG CALL)
CHAVEZ: And, well, put foot on completely unexplored areas. There are so many unexplored sites in the Andes and the Amazon as well.
MCCAMMON: Chavez says that travel to access the unknown frog habitats in unknown conditions isn't easy.
CHAVEZ: To go to the Andes or the Amazon, it normally includes or implies long trips. You know, sometimes it's about to take a bus or take a pickup truck and then long walks. And you may spend two, three, four days traveling to reach the place that you want to study.
MCCAMMON: But the work paid off. You're hearing the team's recordings of three new species of the pristimantis frog they found.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRISTIMANTIS FROG CALLS)
MCCAMMON: The team traveled during the day because these frogs only come out to play when the sun goes down.
CHAVEZ: Yeah, well, after that, they may feel free to rise up and perform the activity that they want to.
MCCAMMON: The nocturnal frogs, with only the moon and stars providing light, use their calls to seek out their mates, cutting through the wind, rain and dense forests, not to mention the sounds of all the other animals.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER RUSHING)
CHAVEZ: At night, in those places, there are no artificial light, and there are no way to recognize each other. So one of the tools - and very, very useful tool - to differentiate between them is a sound. Many, many of frog species are specialized to hear only the sort of sounds that are emitted by the conspecific males.
MCCAMMON: He means the male advertisement call of these newly discovered pristimantis frogs.
CHAVEZ: They have this moment at the beginning of the rainy season when they start to look for partners when you will be able to hear them.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRISTIMANTIS FROG CALL)
CHAVEZ: The discovery itself, it's very important because every scientific expedition to this area have managed to discover new species of frogs. And yeah, well, all those recordings are critical to understand the diversity and how they spread along the area.
MCCAMMON: A pretty cool leap - not sorry - for frog research. That was herpetologist German Chavez describing his team's expedition on their way to discovering three new frog species in Northwest Peru.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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