In a secondary forest in Playa El Sol, Bahía Honda, Veraguas, Panama, the survival of artificial models of the poison dart frog Dendrobates auratus, a species classified as vulnerable under national regulations, was studied. The aim was to understand whether predation and forest canopy cover could influence the survival rates of D. auratus in tropical ecosystems. One hundred artificial models were made of non-toxic clay, painted with Raven Black acrylic to simulate aposematism, and distributed in a zigzag pattern along 10 linear transects in July 2025. Forest canopy cover was measured using a concave densiometer to assess its influence on predation. Twenty camera traps were deployed to complement predator identification. Over seven days, 26 attacks on the models were recorded, attributed to mammals, birds, crabs, and unidentified predators, as evidenced by markings on the models and camera traps. An attack by a bird (Aramides cajaneus), previously unrecorded as a potential predator of this frog, was reported. Analysis showed that canopy cover does not affect the survival of D. auratus. Statistical analyses were performed in R 4.3.2 and figures were visualized with ggplot2 3.3.2. This study reaffirms the ecological importance of amphibians and provides information on the potential predator-prey interaction in fragmented ecosystems, such as secondary forests in the tropics.
