Neither, in a sense, could Serrano or Díaz Ricaurte. The little Lothario, Serrano said, “would not let it go.” The frog seemed to have mistaken Díaz Ricaurte’s footwear “for a potential mate,” and kept returning to clasp it anew. “It was super focused on grabbing Juan’s boot,” says Filipe Serrano, Díaz Ricaurte’s fellow biologist, who witnessed the meet-cute. Díaz Ricaurte gently detached the frog and set it back on the ground, several feet away undeterred, it bounded back over and wrapped its arms around the shoe again.
Two years ago, Juan Díaz Ricaurte was hiking through the mountains of Brazil when a male yellow cururu toad affixed itself to his boot.