I discovered a tiny frog that lives its whole life inside one plant | Endangered species

I remember the park rangers saying: “Why are you going up there? There is no water on the top, and you’re not going to find any frogs.” I said: “Well I’m going to check it out.”

The Espinhaço mountain range in the east of Brazil is a very special place, and it’s mostly unknown. My house looks on to the mountain in Pico do Itambé state park, so I have my breakfast looking at it each morning. You’re surrounded by thunderstorms and strong winds, and the humidity is high. I waited for heavy rains and went to climb to the top.

What had caught my eye were the bromeliad plants, which look like the top of a giant pineapple. Each plant can hold up to 2 litres of water, and inside there is so much happening. Larvae, beetles, all kinds of invertebrate live in there – it’s a whole ecosystem in a tiny space. The central cup holds loads of rainwater, and I thought there could be some frogs using them.

Sure enough I was right. And this led me to discover a new species of frog, which I have committed my life to protecting.

That day, I found a frog in the very first bromeliad I looked inside. I thought, wow, I’ve never seen such a tiny frog, it was the size of my nail. I couldn’t catch it – the plant was like a maze inside.

I looked in the next bromeliad and there was another frog. They all had them in. I saw about 20 frogs that night, and caught three. I took them to the museum for identification, but couldn’t find a match. I ended up walking around with three little frogs in my bag for a year, preserved in alcohol in a jar. I would take them to meetings with me, and ask people if they had ever seen them before. Then I met a taxonomist from São Paulo who took one look at them and said it was a new species.

Not only was it a new species, it turned out to be a very rare and special frog. The entire species lives within 0.5 sq km on a patch of land 1,800 metres above sea level. These frogs spend their entire lifecycle inside the plant: they lay their eggs, become tadpoles and do everything inside it.

I officially described the species as Crossodactylodes itambe in 2013, four years after I found it. I decided to focus my research on this frog, and work to save it.

I never thought I would spend my career learning about frogs, but It feels like an obligation to finish this work and make sure they are protected. I hope to inspire others to do the same, to spend their whole life researching one single species and make something of it – because by protecting one species I am protecting a whole habitat.

During my research, part of the area where these frogs live was destroyed by fire, and that is the biggest threat. Fire from the surrounding communities reaches the top of the mountain really quickly, so we have to find ways to stop it. Climate breakdown is going to make fire events worse – we have dry weather, it’s extremely hot and fires are popping out everywhere.

I really want the local community to feel proud, and to want to protect this local wildlife. Because otherwise, this frog doesn’t have a very bright future. I’m just doing my best, trying to keep their habitat safe. I don’t want to think about them disappearing. I try to be optimistic, and think that these frogs are going to be here for as long as I live, and even after that. I think it will be my legacy, protecting this little frog. Hopefully someone will take that over, because the work won’t stop.

• As told to Phoebe Weston. Dr Bela Barata is a Brazilian ecologist working at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Instituto Biotrópicos. She specialises in the conservation of frogs living in montane tropical areas.