From the IUCN Red List Species Account:

Range Description

This species occurs between 400 and 800m along the western slope of the Cordillera Occidental of Colombia, from El Tambito in Cauca Department, south to Ecuador. In Ecuador, it is known only from the type locality: Mindo, in Pichincha Province, at 1,540m asl.

Habitat and Ecology

It is an arboreal species, living on vegetation next to streams in humid lowland tropical forest and cloud forest. It seems to require closed forest. It breeds in streams, with the eggs laid on leaves overhanging water.

Population

It is reasonably common in Colombia, but there are no recent records from Ecuador.

Population Trend

Decreasing

Major Threats

The major threat is habitat loss as a result of deforestation for agricultural development (including the planting of illegal crops), logging, and human settlement. Other threats include the introduction of alien predatory fish, and pollution resulting from the spraying of illegal crops. Like some other centrolenids, this species might also be affected by the movement of the cloud layer up the mountain sides as a result of climate change, resulting in reduced humidity within the altitudinal range of the species (probably exacerbated by habitat fragmentation).

Conservation Actions

Its presence has not been confirmed from any protected areas, though it might occur in Parque Nacional Natural Munchique in Colombia. There is clearly a need for improved habitat protection of sites at which this species is known to occur.

Taxonomic Notes

Recently transferred from Cochranella to Centrolene by Cisneros-Heredia and McDiarmid (2007).

Citation

Wilmar Bolívar, Luis A. Coloma, Santiago Ron, Diego Cisneros-Heredia, John Lynch, Erik Wild 2004. Cochranella balionota. In: IUCN 2012