Mo Ganji: Rabbs‘ Fringe-limbed Treefrog | Rabbs Fransenglied-Baumfrosch | Ecnomiohyla rabborum | No. 172/250 from work group 8/99

Mo Ganji focuses on the Rabbs’ fringe-limbed treefrog — a large arboreal amphibian once inhabiting humid montane forests — through the discipline of the single line, allowing essence to surface by deliberate reduction. The unbroken line withdraws from anatomy and spectacle, leaving a concentrated presence that signals life without fixing it fully to the idea of “frog.” In Ganji’s approach, the line remains open, capable of holding other meanings, other beings.

Ecnomiohyla rabborum is listed as Extinct in the Wild (EW) on the IUCN Red List. Endemic to a small area of cloud forest in central Panama, the species experienced a rapid and catastrophic decline following the spread of chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease that has devastated amphibian populations worldwide. The last known wild individual was seen in 2007.

The principal drivers of extinction in the wild include disease, extremely limited range, and broader environmental stressors linked to climate change. The species survived for several years in captive breeding programs, where unique reproductive behaviors were documented, including males carrying tadpoles on their backs. Despite these efforts, the captive population eventually failed, leaving the species without a viable wild or managed future.

Ganji’s single line opens a space in which the frog can be encountered without urgency or narration. It allows attention to rest on a life that now exists only as trace and memory, suggesting how disappearance can occur not through visible destruction, but through processes so swift and invisible that presence vanishes before it can be fully grasped.