Transcript for Una rana llamada Romeo (A Frog Named Romeo) - Revisited

All listeners, you know, the bond between humans and animals can be pretty amazing, even life changing. We have witnessed the power of that connection right here on the Duolingo Spanish podcast. So, for this special season, we are revisiting our favorite stories about people and their friends from the animal kingdom. Today we're headed to Bolivia, for an episode from August 2020. It features the de sacamacho, a biologist who's obsessed with a frog in danger of extinction. His name is Rumeo, and the race allowed a hilarious campaign to save his whole species. This is truly one of my favorite stories from the podcast. Stay tuned until the end for an update about the race's work and Rumeo. Now onto the episode. In 2018, the Asakamacho went deep inside one of the largest cloud forests in Bolivia. It was cold, she could feel the mist on her face. Water dripped off the leaves onto the ground. The air smelled the flowers, leaves, soil, and

Teresa is a trained biologist, but at that moment, she felt more like a matchmaker, a frog matchmaker. She and her team were searching for a single female specimen, or Embra, of the Sewingus water frog. If found this one frog could help prevent an entire species from disappearing.

This frog was the only known male specimen of the sywing that's water frog. He needed a mate if the species was to stand a chance. So several months earlier, a group of biologists had hatched a scheme to raise funds for an expedition. They gave the frog a name, Romeo, and set up a dating profile for him on match.com.

Suddenly, she saw something leaping from the waterfall into a pond. She hustled to the spot where something that looked like a frog had landed. Bienvenidos and welcome to the Duolingo Spanish podcast. I'm Artina Castro. Every episode we bring you fascinating true stories to help you improve your Spanish listening and gain new perspectives on the world. The storyteller will be using intermediate Spanish and I'll be chiming in for context and in English. If you miss something, you can always skip back and listen again. We also offer full transcripts at podcast. Duolingo.com. When Teresa was 10, her biology teacher asked some students to bring tadpoles or renaquachos to class. They were going to learn about amphibians. Teresa had seen frogs before, but she had never thought much about them.

During her third semester of college, Teresa had to find a research project to join. One afternoon, she spotted an ad on one of the school bulletin boards. A team of scientists was looking for students to travel to remote areas of the rainforest, to do a species inventory.

It is a traveled with a group of 20 scientists to imagine his area known as Ambodo Madidi. Only five of the scientists were women, and it was clear that some of the local men were not comfortable with them being there.

Patching side of a frog was not easy.

Back in school, Teresa tried to learn as much as she could about frogs. She finished a master's degree in Ecuador. Then she applied for a job at the Museum of Natural History in Cochabamba, the one that specializes in amphibians. In 2009, a team of biologists captured a single male Sewinkas' water frog. This species is found in fewer than ten places in all of Bolivia's forests. One of the biologists in the expedition was a friend of Thediasas, and he knew that in the museum where she worked, there was a project to raise frogs in captivity, or Griad Ranas in Caldi video.

Biologists call this frog the Matobius Yurakare. It lives under rocks at high elevations and never, ever, leaves the water. It's easily recognizable because of its orange belly. This water frog species is threatened by pollution, climate change, and also a deadly infectious disease. So Teresa had to take really good care of this male frog.

He was calm, relaxed, and quiet. He didn't move much, but he ate a lot of worms. Time passed and scientists failed to find other water frogs like the rays as out in the wild. What if they were no more so-wink as water frogs alive? According to the rays, if it became extinct, this could have a big impact on the whole ecosystem.

In the beginning of 2018, the frog had been totally quiet for a whole year. Not a single croak or couldoar. This really worried the biologists at the museum, including Teresa. The biologists had to do something, so they decided to start raising money for an expedition to search for a female Sewinkus water frog. The global wildlife conservation, an NGO based in the US, offered to help fund the expedition. They also suggested partnering with match.com, which is when the frog got a name. Romeo.

Rumeo's dating profile said that he was an 11-year-old male living in Kocchabamba, Bolivia. He described himself as a pretty simple guy. He was looking for a stalkie and bald female frog. Two to three inches long, who was interested in having kids. His profile photo showed him chilling in his tank.

The match.compost went viral around the world. Romeo was a global sensation. On Valentine's Day, 2018, the scientists at the museum got a call from the people of the global wildlife conservation. They had really good news.

Since Romeo was already a little advanced in age, they decided to set up the process of organizing an expedition.

The expedition to find Julieta began on December 8th, 2018. Only four people went, Teresa, another biologist, and two veterinarians. The spot they chose was a secret. Romeo was now a celebrity and they didn't want to attract any unnecessary attention.

At 7 a.m., the team left Coach Abamba. It was a seven hour drive to the rainforest. When they arrived, there was a thick fog. Bad news.

She could not scare off any potential frogs. That is a reached down slowly to the bottom of the pond. And, felt a frog. She grabbed it. When she got it out of the water, she immediately looked at its belly. And...

As it turned out, the frog that Aceah had grabbed was a male, but she spent two more days searching the pond and ended up finding five healthy frogs. Two of them were female. One was too young to reproduce, but the other one was the perfect match for Romeo.

This is team brought the frogs to the museum and it all types of tasks on Julieta.

Finally, after passing all the tests and a four week quarantine, it was time for Romeo and Julietas first date.

These days, Teresa Camacho spends even more time in the field. Since her story first aired in 2020, Teresa and other scientists have learned a lot more about this kind of frog. But what about Romeo? Well, Teresa sent us an important update in a WhatsApp message. You'll hear she sounds a bit different from the original story.

This story was produced and updated by Thali Goldman, a journalist and writer based in Buenos Aires. We would love to know what you thought of this episode. You can always write us an email at podcast at duolingo.com or call and leave us a voice mail or audio message on WhatsApp at plus one 703 953 9369. Don't forget to see your name and where you're from. If you liked this story, please share it. You can find the audio and a transcript of each episode at podcast.doolingo.com. You can also follow us on Apple Podcasts or on your favorite listening app, so you never miss an episode. With over 500 million users, Doolingo is the world's leading language learning platform, and the most downloaded education app in the world. Duolingo believes in making education free, fun, and available to everyone. To join, download the app today or find out more at duolingo.com. The Duolingo Spanish podcast is produced by Duolingo and Adonte Media. Our managing editor is David Alandete, our senior editor is Laura Eisensey. This season was produced by Tali Goldman and included stories by Marco Avelis, Lucia Villavicencio, Lorena Galliot, Paige Sutherland and Tali Goldman. The stories were edited by Teresa Bosa, Stephanie Joyce, Catalina Mai, and Megan McDowell. Audio editors and sound designers were Andreas Feshtenholtz, Mauricio Mendoza, Claire Mullin, Daniel Murcia, Martín Perez, Roa, and Isabel Vasquez. Our production manager is Roman Frumdini, our production coordinator is Nicolas Sosa. Habira Mai also supported production. Assistant producers were Andreas Feshtenholtz and Carol Rolando. Our supervising sound designers, mixing and mastering engineers were the role of Fell Martin Cruz Farga Daniel Murcia and Antonio Romero. I'm the executive producer and your host, Martina Castro. Gracias por escuchar.