Cool, Colorful Tree Frogs!

             

            Have you ever walked in a rainforest under a green canopy of colorful flowers? I did today along the Costa Rica shoreline. From the jungle, I could see the Caribbean Sea with crashing waves and bikers with surfboards. The tall umbrella trees protected me from the rain as colorful tree frogs, snakes, and spiders climbed in the branches above.    

Tree frogs stay awake all night guarding their trees. Once they grow up, they never touch the ground again. Tree frogs love the rain and sleep all day perched on green leaves that match their green legs. Webbed tree frog feet have tiny suction cups to grip the branches. They spend years in the trees catching insects with their long, sticky tongues. They hunt by closing their eyes until a snake or bird comes too close and then they spread their colorful toes to surprise their prey. Quickly, they climb higher up the tree to safety. These colorful frogs croak at night to attract mates.  Their eggs take 80 days to hatch. Who could be an enemy of the tree frogs? That would be snakes, spiders, bats, owls, and toucans. 

In this tropical country, who would prey on an elderly American couple living in a condo on a Costa Rican beach? Even in paradise, there is sorrow. Our host told us about a local beach town that attracts tourists with its upscale hotels and restaurants. Unfortunately, it also attracts thieves. A kind American couple owned a local restaurant and kept their earnings in cash. Recently, they took their money to the bank to get a safe deposit box and were told there were none available. So the couple bought a safe and locked up their cash in it at home. Somebody at the bank must have told somebody bad who decided to rob them. The thieves broke into their condo with guns and duct tape. They threatened the couple and asked the husband to open his safe. He refused, so they wrapped him up tightly in plastic wrap. The American still refused to tell them, so they gagged him and then wrapped up his wife in plastic wrap. At that point, the husband finally told them the code to his safe. The thieves successfully opened it up and escaped with all their cash. Somehow, the wife yelled for help and both of them ended up in the hospital where the husband passed away. Surprisingly, his wife decided to stay in the Costa Rican town and moved to a nearby beach condo. I doubt she got the money back. It is a very sad, bizarre story in this land of so-called paradise. 

Like humans, tree frogs protect their tree and food source with their life. They breed and bring up their families in the same tree. What would a tree frog do if a predator threatened its habitat? They wrestle other tree frogs and bellow loudly. They stay in their tree their whole life which can be 40 years.  What can we learn from the tricky tree frogs? They attract their prey with their colorful facade and then eat them. Are humans any different? The villains in movies are often attracted to their victims by their fancy clothes, money, and cars. Then they take advantage of their prey with theft and violence. We are not so different from tree frogs, are we? Unfortunately, the rich American couple attracted local thieves in Costa Rica. Their bags of money and fancy attire attracted criminals to their condo. Maybe we can learn a lesson from the tree frogs who attract their predators with bright colors and then they eat them. It reminds me of Theodore Roosevelt’s quote, “Speak softly, but carry a big stick.”