Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

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AndyO'Connor
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Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by AndyO'Connor »

I was asked by a friend about a picture on facebook of a black harlequin toad (Atelopus sp.) with purple squiggles on it. I found one other similar picture on google, but to me it looks like a REALLY well done photoshop... Every other reference to the species is yellow and black or orange and black, I couldn't find any good resource that said they occasionally are violet...

https://www.google.com/search?q=costa+r ... =822&dpr=1
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Saunders
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Re: Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by Saunders »

There are quite a few badly photoshopped dart frogs around it, but as for the Harlequin I'd still say it is shopped, a darn good one, but shopped nonetheless.
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Don Becker
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Re: Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by Don Becker »

Image

I saw this one posted on reddit.com, and someone said it was a 3D rendering. Not sure if that's true or not.

This page has the above picture, along with a real photo of one
http://braingasmic.tumblr.com/post/2616 ... osta-rican
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AndyO'Connor
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Re: Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by AndyO'Connor »

Don, the first one looked really fake to me, but the obviously real frog was the one I was referring to, I was wondering if someone turned the normally yellow/gold coloration pink/purple because it is the only picture of that color combo for an Atelopus I could find anywhere online, and I can't find any scientific type references that say that's a naturally occurring color for that genus.
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Cole Grover
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Re: Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by Cole Grover »

Andy,

It's real (well, the real one is real...). Atelopus as a whole are pretty spectacular critters.

Here are a couple of useful resources:

Atelopus on AmphibiaWeb

Atelopus on Arkive.org

-Cole
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AndyO'Connor
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Re: Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by AndyO'Connor »

Thanks Cole. It wasn't TOO far of a stretch, I'm just surprised that it's the ONLY picture of such an amazing Atelopus, I mean they are all pretty spectacular, but that one is so different from the others I've seen.
ChadHarrison
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Re: Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by ChadHarrison »

Definitely shopped. Fortunately, if you get into the right area you can find some really unusual screamers such as this one.

http://i.imgur.com/APSLq.jpg
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Cole Grover
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Re: Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by Cole Grover »

ChadHarrison wrote:Definitely shopped.
AndyO'Connor wrote: the first one looked really fake to me, but the obviously real frog was the one I was referring to
The OP wasn't referring to the obviously fake frog. Please see my post above - there are real Atelopus with stunning purple markings.

-Cole
MonarchzMan
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Re: Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by MonarchzMan »

The Atelopus is real and from Suriname (I believe). Great to see my Dendrobates auratus photo being used without permission and being incorrectly identified as Atelopus varius. :roll:
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justinm
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Re: Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by justinm »

MonarchzMan wrote:The Atelopus is real and from Suriname (I believe). Great to see my Dendrobates auratus photo being used without permission and being incorrectly identified as Atelopus varius. :roll:
I've been using your photos without permission to throw darts at, just an fyi. I love your stuff though, I really do.
MonarchzMan
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Re: Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by MonarchzMan »

justinm wrote:
MonarchzMan wrote:The Atelopus is real and from Suriname (I believe). Great to see my Dendrobates auratus photo being used without permission and being incorrectly identified as Atelopus varius. :roll:
I've been using your photos without permission to throw darts at, just an fyi. I love your stuff though, I really do.
As long as you don't misidentify them as species in completely different families...
ChadHarrison
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Re: Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by ChadHarrison »

Cole Grover wrote:
ChadHarrison wrote:Definitely shopped.
AndyO'Connor wrote: the first one looked really fake to me, but the obviously real frog was the one I was referring to
The OP wasn't referring to the obviously fake frog. Please see my post above - there are real Atelopus with stunning purple markings.

-Cole

If you'd have followed that link, you would have understood that I was only joking.
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Cole Grover
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Re: Purple and black Harlequin toad, is it real?

Post by Cole Grover »

ChadHarrison wrote:If you'd have followed that link, you would have understood that I was only joking.
I followed the link, but I only detected sarcasm - my bad.

-Cole
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