A CLUTCH of critically endangered water frogs rescued from a muddy puddle in Chile’s driest desert has birthed 200 offspring at the country’s national zoo, the Chilean Government announced Wednesday.

The Loa water frogs, a tiny and beguiling dark-spotted amphibian also known as Telmatobius dankoi, mated between Oct. 11 and 12.

Those couplings produced 200 offspring now in varying stages of growth under the watchful eyes of scientists at the capital Santiago’s National Zoo. The frogs are native to a stream outside Calama, a fast-growing northern mining city of 180,000, but amid intensive industrial activity and development the river became polluted and dried up.

Last year local scientists backed by a team from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature recovered just 14 survivors and airlifted them to Santiago.

(SD-Agencies)