Vohipara

On our last full day in Ranomafana I had spoken to Bertaine about my hope of seeing a rare species of frog known as a Painted Mantella Frog. They're Madagascar's answer to poison dart frogs and they have evolved almost identically to those in Central and South America. Both Mantella Frogs and their counter parts on the other side of the world live almost entirely on land. Just like poison frogs, Mantella frogs are quite small, reaching no more than 5 centimeters in length. While they aren't closely related they've ended up being very similar. The reason for this is they've evolved to fill similar niches in their environment, so developed similar adaptations, something known as convergent evolution.

Mantella frogs are, surprise surprise, endemic to Madagascar. They're often considered the most beautiful of all frogs because of their bright colours which they use to warn off predators that they're poisonous.