About a week later, when the embryos are beginning to move within the eggs, the male picks them up and stores them in his vocal sac, where they are kept until they have developed a functioning gut.

It has been found in wet southern beech forests at altitudes of between 50 and 500 metres (160 and 1,640 ft) above sea level.

[1][5][6] The Chile Darwin's frog is currently listed as "Critically Endangered or Possibly Extinct" by the IUCN, since there have been no confirmed sightings since around 1981.

The main threats it faces are destruction of the pine forests in which it lives and building work but its steep decline is unexplained.

[3] On January 21, 2008, Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE), according to its head, Helen Meredith, identified nature's most weird, wonderful and endangered species: "The EDGE amphibians are amongst the most remarkable and unusual species on the planet and yet an alarming 85% of the top 100 are receiving little or no conservation attention.".