Climbing mantella

The climbing mantella, Mantella laevigata, is a small, brightly coloured poison frog from the rainforests of northeastern Madagascar. Adults measure roughly 24 to 30 millimetres and weigh only a gram or two. The front of the back is yellow or pale green, while the limbs, belly and rear are black with blue spots on the legs. It is active by day, and its colour warns predators of the alkaloid toxins in its skin, which the frog does not make itself but builds from the ants, mites and other small arthropods it eats in the leaf litter. Unlike most of its relatives it climbs, using trees and bamboo, and it breeds in water-filled tree holes and broken bamboo stalks. Males defend these pools, and females return to feed their tadpoles with unfertilised eggs. The IUCN lists the species as Least Concern, though numbers are suspected to be falling as forest outside protected areas is cleared.