Planet Earth’s latest drama: the sex life of very rare frog

VIEWERS of Planet Earth accustomed to epic tales of life and death among charismatic beasts will see a different kind of drama tomorrow: the sex life of a rare frog.

The last episode of the third series of Sir David Attenborough’s BBC nature documentary follows the search for a mate for “Sad Santiago”, the only captive frog from the species of which there are believed to be no more than 49 in the wild.

Jaime Culebras, a biologist who has dedicated his professional life to frog conservation, is seen hiking into the cloud forest in the Ecuadorian Andes to find a female partner for the morona-santiago harlequin frog. In a race against time because of its advanced age, Mr Culebras spent nights searching in torrential rain for what was feared to be the last remaining female in the wild.

The crew hiked with mules and horses before camping for 10 days, searching day and night, when there was more chance of finding one of the three-centimetre amphibians.

“Many nights I didn’t sleep and searched right through to breakfast – I drank a lot of coffee,” he said. “You look very slowly – you have to be careful where you put your hands because of dangers in the forest.”

viewers will see Mr

Culebras’s hopes eventually raised by a sound, only for it to turn out to be a rare glass frog. But in the end he strikes gold and exclaims: “I feel so happy … Santiago will be very, very, very happy because she seems very beautiful.”

The team filmed Mr Culebras in Ecuador, the only country where the

is found after a producer was “blown away” by his story. He is featured in the final episode of

dedicated to conservation “heroes”.

For two months after the BBC crew had left, Santiago and the female clung to each other in the mating amplexus position – but with no joy – until Santiago died.

The scientists were lucky enough to find another male and female on a return trip and breeding attempts are continuing.

“We had to play Tinder again,” Mr Culebras joked.

“Sometimes it can be years and years of a male and female trying without producing any offspring. In the end we were lucky after a year.

“The female releases hundreds of eggs. Some tadpoles die, but we ended up with dozens of small frogs.”

The frogs remain in captivity while further tests are carried out to ensure they can survive in the wild, but the centre’s scientists hope that they have succeeded in keeping the species alive.