Hi everyone,
I chose my Avatar. Is the "CoquÃ". I thought you would like to know about the CoquÃ. Here is some information:
The Puerto Rican coquà is a very small - tiny - tree frog about one inch long. Some coquÃes look green, some brown and some yellowish - actually they are translucent. CoquÃes have a high pitched sound and can be heard from far away. The coquÃes begin to sing when the sun goes down at dusk. Their melody serenades islanders to sleep. CoquÃes sing all night long until dawn when they stop singing and head for the nest. Puerto Ricans love their coquÃes and have written poems, stories, and Aguinaldos about them. During the time of the TaÃno Indians trillions of coquÃes serenated our ancestral home. Many TaÃno Indian myths surround the coquÃ. CoquÃes are found in much of the TaÃno art like pictographs and pottery. In Puerto Rico all coquÃes are called coquà even though not all sing ''co-quÃ''. Only two of the species the ''Coquà Común'' and the ''Coquà de la Montaña or Coquà Puertorriqueño'' actually sing ''co-quÃ''. Puerto Rican coquÃes have relatives all over Latin America. The coquà genre is found in all the Caribbean Islands, and in Central and South America. But again, the only ones that make the sound ''co-quÃ'' are Puerto Rican. The scientific name for the coquà is Eleu-thero-dactylus, characterized because they have no webbed toes. There are 16 different species in Puerto Rico and all of them have padded discs at the end of their toes which helps them climb. CoquÃes are classified as amphibians - a grouping for cold blooded vertebrates that includes frogs, toads, or newts -that are able to live in both water and land. Contrary to frogs, the coquÃes do not go through a tadpole stage and break out of their egg - a small replica of their parents. Some coquÃes are terrestrial some are arboreal. The Coquà Dorado is the only specie in the world that bears live young. The male coquà sings - not the female. That means that in Puerto Rico we hear only half the coquÃes singing. The male coquà watches over the eggs. The eggs hatch in 28 days and the young coquÃes remain in the nest for an additional 5 days. Again the male coquà watches over them until they leave the nest. When there is more light either from the moon or from street lights, there are less coquÃes to be heard. Therefore there are more coquÃes in isolated areas like the mountains. The specie ''Puerto Rican coquÃ'' sings co-quÃ, co-quÃ, co-quà at dusk and changes to co-quÃ-quÃ-quÃ, co-quÃ-quÃ-quÃ, co-quÃ-quÃ-quÃ, at dawn. It is arboreal - climbing to the top of trees in search of insects. There it remains until dawn when it changes its song and jumps down nesting until the evening.
Take care,
Bebita.
