During the rainy season in Costa Rica the hourglass tree frog makes its way from the canopy tree tops down to the forest floor in a dangerous quest to find a mate my name is Philippe de Andrade and I’m a National Geographic wildlife filmmaker it looks like one of the alpha males and then a juvenile male my passion for animals has taken me across the world and given me a deep appreciation for this bird for season two of untape we’ll be exploring one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world Costa Rica Costa Rica is home to around half a million different species of plants and animals and for most of the creatures that live here nighttime is when things really get going the hourglass tree frog he’sa young male just coming into adulthood his incredible eyes give him the advantage of being able to see in almost complete darkness but at just one inch in length he’s a little frog in a big world falling from this high up in the canopy almost assured his death [Music] he’s on the move for a very important reason it’s his first mating season and he’s in search of a female but before he can find her the conditions have to be just right [Music] in a single year some areas of Costa Rica can experience 25 feet of rainfall and not only have the animals in this rainforest found ways to deal with these conditions they have evolved to drive in them [Music] all this water creates temporary ponds on the forest floor the perfect setting for these frogs to breed but before any of that can happen he first has to find a willing female and he has competition a lot of competition amongst the deafening calls of all these males he’s trying to be the loudest and the brightest this is a game of stamina and with some persistence we might just get lucky the silhouette of an elusive female it’s a promising site for this young bachelor [Music] but she’s already taken in this case experience beats out enthusiasm he is deflated but continues his search and luckily for him he caught the attention of another female seeing that she is without a mate he decides to move closer engage her interest and she responds by inching closer they will mate in a privacy of the forest the end result is a successful breeding season all these tadpoles that he helped create in a massive universe this tiny hourglass tree frog contributed to the preservation of his species [Music] [Music] [Music]tadpoles that he helped create in a massive universe this tiny hourglass tree frog contributed to the preservation of his species [Music] [Music] [Music]tadpoles that he helped create in a massive universe this tiny hourglass tree frog contributed to the preservation of his species [Music] [Music] [Music]
