From the IUCN Red List Species Account:

Range Description

This species is fairly widespread on both slopes of the cordilleras of Costa Rica and adjacent western Panama, at elevations of 1,089-2,650m asl (Savage, 2002).

Habitat and Ecology

It is a diurnal species inhabiting leaf-litter in primary humid premontane and montane forest. It presumably breeds by direct development.

Population

It is generally common and regularly recorded in Costa Rica (Pounds et al., 1997; Lips, 1998), although there are indications that it has undergone declines at several sites at which it was formerly common, such as the Reserva Forestal Fortuna, Chiriquí, in Panama.

Population Trend

decreasing

Major Threats

Declines of this species have been recorded in both Panama and Costa Rica. For example, in Panama a massive die-off of amphibians has been observed at the Reserva Forestal Fortuna, with chytridiomycosis suspected as the major causal factor (Lips, 1999), and they are now no longer common at Las Tablas in Costa Rica where they were formerly abundant (K. Lips, pers. comm.). On the other hand, museum specimens of this species collected from La Selva-Volcán Barva (now in the Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo) in 1986 have been found infected with chytrid fungi (Puschendorf, Bolaños and Chaves, 2006), yet the species appears to have persisted in this area, where strong declines have taken place amongst other species (R. Puschendorf, pers. comm.).

Conservation Actions

The species has been recorded from many protected areas in Costa Rica and Panama, including Parque Internacional La Amistad and Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo. Further research is needed into the possible decline of the species at Reserva Forestal Fortuna, and the potential impacts of the chytrid pathogen on this species.

Red List Status

Near Threatened (NT)

Rationale

Listed as Near Threatened since, although its Extent of Occurrence is close to 10,000km2, and it has suffered some significant localised declines in parts of its range, it remains generally abundant within a large part of its range, and much of the population is not fragmented by habitat loss. It seems unlikely to be declining fast enough either through habitat loss or disease to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.

Taxonomic Notes

This species was previously included in the genus Eleutherodactylus (Crawford and Smith 2005). This form might represent a complex of several species.

Citation

Frank Solís, Roberto Ibáñez, Gerardo Chaves, Jay Savage, César Jaramillo, Querube Fuenmayor, Federico Bolaños 2010. Craugastor podiciferus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T56870A11547021. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-2.RLTS.T56870A11547021.en .Downloaded on 23 January 2019