New Hope for Sehuencas Water Frogs After Romeo's Death

Scientists once thought that a male frog dubbed Romeo was the last of his kind. Then, when more Sehuencas water frogs were discovered in 2018, they hoped he would mate with a female they called Juliet. Sadly, their love story now is over—Romeo died (without offspring) last year.

But good news has emerged for the star-crossed frog species: biologists have discovered a new population in a Bolivian national park, opening a new act in the dramatic 21st-century play of Sehuencas water frogs. This is only the second discovery of a population of these frogs in the wild since 2009.

“It’s ending a chapter but opening a book of conservation for us,” says Teresa Camacho Badani, a herpetologist at the Zoological Museum at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador in Quito.

Researchers first captured Romeo in 2009 in an area of Carrasco National Park in Bolivia affected by the spread of chytrid fungus, a deadly pathogen that has wiped out entire species of amphibians across the world. The researchers took Romeo to the Alcide d’Orbigny Natural History Museum in Cochabamba as a precautionary measure.

“Nobody knew that Romeo would be the last of his kind seen in 9 years,” Camacho Badani says.

The effort to find more of this species picked up in 2018, when Global Wildlife Conservation, now known as Re:wild, partnered with the dating website Match.com to bring attention to the plight of the last known Sehuencas water frog at the time. It even included a dating profile for Romeo on the website.

While she likely never downloaded the dating app, a Capulet emerged from the same area where researchers discovered Romeo. Camacho Badani, who was then working with the Alcide d’Orbigny Museum, and her colleagues discovered five more Sehuencas water frogs in a different stream in Carrasco National Park. Romeo had given up hope at this point, it seemed—he no longer made mating calls. But when the researchers introduced one of the adult females they took into captivity from the wild, he suddenly got his mojo back, serenading this Juliet with mating calls once more.

But though there was no plague on either of their houses, Romeo and Juliet never reproduced. Romeo eventually died in January 2025, 16 years after he was first taken into captivity, from natural causes related to his old age, says Ricardo Céspedes, director of the Alcide d’Orbigny Museum. Fortunately, Juliet didn’t take the same path as Shakespeare’s leading lady when she learned of Romeo’s death, and is still alive at the museum.

Camacho Badani was inspired by Romeo, who “never gave up for a happy ending.” Around the time Romeo died last January, she and her colleagues followed a tip from Saul Altamirano, a botanist working in an area in Carrasco National Park about 62 miles from the stream where Juliet was discovered in 2018. The team discovered a small but stable population in the area. They are monitoring the amphibians at this new population using an underwater recording device, tracking the frogs’ calls in the wild for the first time without undue disturbance.

While the discovery provides new hope for Sehuencas water frogs after the loss of its Romeo, significant challenges still lie ahead. The species is considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to the threat from chytrid and habitat loss.

The Alcide d’Orbigny Museum hasn’t yet been able to induce Juliet or any of the other nine Sehuencas water frogs they still hold to mate. Céspedes says the most important thing for conserving the Sehuencas water frog and other species is more funding and staff to work on the conservation of the frogs.

Nonetheless, the museum has had luck over the years getting other water frogs of the genus such as the Cochabamba water frog and the Titicaca water frog to mate in captivity.

Now with the discovery of a new stable wild population, Camacho Badani says conservation efforts are shifting to protect the remaining habitat of the creatures. Meanwhile, Re:wild is working to establish a coordinated plan in Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru to conserve all 63 known species of water frogs with a project that brings together experts across the region. Most species of water frogs face threats of extinction due to disease, habitat loss and other problems.

Finding more Sehuencas water frogs isn’t always such a romantic affair, however. Camacho Badani says that the capture technique often involves placing your hands blindly into murky water. As she feels around, she sometimes captures a water frog or a tadpole. Other times, she isn’t so lucky, and she’s rewarded with putting her hands around a footlong slug.