Initially we intended to go to Santa Rosa de la Yunga to see the location of the first mysterious population.  Manuel and I have a photo of the two of us from about 12 years ago standing upon the famous cliff, with the mighty Maranon in the background.  The photo captures fairly well how we felt at the time, as though we were standing at the edge of the world, or maybe on top of it.  At the time that picture was taken, the thought of having a wife, let alone a child seemed out of the realm of possibility.  Read More…

2017 is almost in the bag! This seemed like a particularly busy year for us and things went by in a blur. We are anticipating a busy and exciting year for 2018. We will have, for the first time in a few years, more captive bred Cruziohyla calcarifer from CRARC stock. The little froglets are adorable and are growing well now. They will be available directly through us if in Canada or through our international distributors with the first shipments of the year. In addition to this, we have some absolutely stunning Ameerega bassleri of the yellow form available. These Read More…

With summer here it’s time we start looking forward to fall availability.  We will be well stocked on lots of Ranitomeya including some like the Shucushuyacu and Pampa Hermosa morphs of R. benedicta – both of which have been in short supply lately.  Speaking of benedicta, we have decided to release the Yellow morph of benedicta in September in the US and Canada, and early 2018 they will be available for Europe.  We have been working with this form for several years, and found it to be, for us at least, a little stingier with the reproduction than the other Read More…

Spring is here again which means that there is lots of activity at Understory.  It looks like our Mantella are about to start their breeding season already.  Last year got off to a late start with their breeding not commencing until later in the summer.  But this year we already have the first Mantella crocea tadpoles in the water.  It looks like other Mantella species are soon to follow.  We still have a good selection of M. madagascariensis and M. expectata from last season which are beautifully coloured and a very good size. We now have froglets of the Reticulated Read More…

By the end of 2005 Manuel and I had realized our first small export from Peru, which was, for us at least, a momentous accomplishment and the result of over three years of hard work to get to that point.  It was enjoyable work and afforded us the opportunity to indulge our passion and travel frequently throughout Peru, most often to Tarapoto and surrounding regions in search of frogs and adventure.  Also active in the area studying poison frogs were two young students from East Carolina University, Jason Brown and Evan Twomey.  By this time they had a few really Read More…