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This species is known from the humid lower montane zone on both slopes of the southern Cordillera de Talamanca of western Panama and eastern Costa Rica, at 1,670-2,660m asl. There is a question as to how far east it extends in Panama, since the specimen from near Volcán Barú is taxonomically questionable.

It inhabits humid montane forest, being scansorial, foraging in vegetation up to 1m above the ground, and sometimes hiding in bromeliads during the day; it does not survive in degraded habitats. It breeds by direct development and is not dependent upon water.

This is quite a common species, and its population in Costa Rica is apparently stable (at least through 1996) at Las Tablas.

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The major threat is destruction of natural forests due to expanding agriculture, logging, and human settlements.

• 1.1 Housing & urban areas
• 2.1.2 Small-holder farming
• 5.3.5 Motivation Unknown/Unrecorded

It occurs in Parque Internacional La Amistad on the Costa Rica-Panama border.

• 5.1.2 National level

Listed as Endangered because its Extent of Occurrence is less than 5,000 km2, it is known from fewer than ten locations, and there is continuing decline in the extent and quality of its habitat in Costa Rica and Panama.

• García-París, M., Good, D.A., Parra-Olea, G. and Wake, D.B. 2000. Biodiversity of Costa Rican salamanders: implications of high levels of genetic differentiation and phylogeographic structure for species formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA: 1640-1647.
• Ibáñez, R., Solís, F., Jaramillo, C. and Rand, S. 2000. An overwiew of the herpetology of Panama. In: J.D. Johnson, R.G. Webb and O.A. Flores-Villela (eds), Mesoamerican Herpetology: Systematics, Zoogeography and Conservation, pp. 159-170. The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas.
• Lips, K.R. 1993. Bolitoglossa minitula. Herpetological Review: 107.
• Lips, K.R. 1998. Decline of a tropical montane amphibian fauna. Conservation Biology 12: 106-117.
• Savage, J.M. 2002. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: A Herpetofauna between two Continents, between two Seas. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
• Wake, D.B. 1987. Adaptive radiation of salamanders in Middle American cloud forests. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 74: 242-264.
• Wake, D.B., Brame, A.H. and Duellman, W.E. 1973. New species of salamanders, genus Bolitoglossa, from Panama. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County - Contributions in Science: 1-19.
• Young, B., Sedaghatkish, G., Roca, E. and Fuenmayor, Q. 1999. El Estatus de la Conservación de la Herpetofauna de Panamá: Resumen del Primer Taller Internacional sobre la Herpetofauna de Panamá. The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, Virginia.