Jambato Toad (Atelopus ignescens)

The Jambato toad, also called the Quito stubfoot toad or Jambato harlequin frog, is a species of true toad endemic to the northern Andes of Ecuador. Its scientific name, ignescens, meaning to catch fire, refers to the bright orange red coloring of its underside beneath an otherwise uniformly black body, long limbs, and blunt snout, with females reaching 36 to 48 millimeters and males 34 to 41 millimeters. The species collapsed dramatically in the 1980s and was not seen again after 1988, leading to fears it had gone extinct, until a relict population was rediscovered in 2016 near Angamarca in Cotopaxi Province. It survives in streams, rivers, and ponds of the paramo around Quito, and the IUCN lists it as critically endangered, citing chytridiomycosis, habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, and introduced rainbow trout as ongoing threats.