''Gastrotheca ovifera'' (vernacular names: pouched frog and giant marsupial frog; or ) is a species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

in the family Hemiphractidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to northern

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

and is known from the Venezuelan Coastal Range, including Sierra de Aroa. ''Gastrotheca ovifera'' occurs in

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...

s at elevations of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. It is associated with

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a Family (biology), family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the Tropics, tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and on ...

s where it hides, especially during dry periods. The eggs are carried on the female's back and have direct development (i.e., there is no free-living larval stage). This species can be locally abundant, but it has declined in many places where it used to be common. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

caused by agriculture, logging, and infrastructure development. However, it has also declined in protected areas such as the Henri Pittier National Park, for reasons that are unclear.

References

ovifera Endemic fauna of Venezuela Amphibians of Venezuela Amphibians described in 1854 Taxa named by Hinrich Lichtenstein Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Hemiphractidae-stub