amphibian ark Keeping threatened amphibian species afloat

2010 Seed Grant Winners

Amphibian Ark is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 Seed Grant program. These $5,000 competitive grants are designed to fund small start-up projects that are in need of seed money in order to build successful long-term programs that attract larger funding. We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Chester Zoo, and the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation in establishing these grants. Applications for seed grants in 2011 will be called for early in 2011.

The successful projects are:

• Maude Island Frog Habitat – Orana Wildlife Park, New Zealand ($3,562)
• Conservation of the Cuban long-nosed toad ($5,000, funded by Chester Zoo)
• Conservation actions for native and threatened amphibians of Colombian Caribbean region – Fundación Botánica y Zoológica de Barranquilla ($3,000)
• Frogs and toads from south-western Colombia: Jewels of nature that our grandsons should know – Jonh Jairo Mueses-Cisneros ($575)
• Bolivian amphibian initiative – Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d’Orbigny ($1700)

Maude Island Frog Habitat – Orana Wildlife Park, New Zealand

Orana Wildlife Park (Christchurch) – New Zealand‟s only open range zoo, will develop a state-of-the-art habitat for the “Nationally Endangered‟ New Zealand Maud Island Frog (Leiopelma pakeka) in 2010. Housing these frogs will support the aims of the Department of Conservation Native Frog Recovery Plan through conservation advocacy, provision of an insurance population, research, refining husbandry techniques for the species and ultimately breeding for release to the wild.

The habitat will be a nocturnal display providing an insurance population of Maud Island Frogs, allow refinement of techniques to enable captive breeding of the species, and ultimately allow breed-for-release programs to supplement surviving colonies in situ. The refinement of these techniques is also essential to the Department of Conservation‟s aim of securing and breeding Hamilton‟s Frog (Leiopelma hamiltonii) in captivity and could potentially lead to breed-for-release of this species.

Extensive interpretation will support key messages that will outline the importance of habitat preservation, the need for controlling introduced predators and demonstrate the public‟s role in assisting conservation. Through holding the species, Orana will obtain more information about the management of Maud Island Frogs, helping to manage this and other species (particularly Hamilton‟s Frog) in captivity and in their natural habitats.

The Amphibian Ark funds are instrumental to enabling us to construct a facility that provides long term security of Maud Island Frog and potentially Hamilton‟s Frog.

The complete project proposal can be viewed here.

Conservation of the Cuban long-nosed toad (Peltophryne longinasus): captive breeding and in situ monitoring

The Cuban long-nosed toad (Peltophryne longinasus) is the first anuran species in which the chytrid fungus have been found in Cuba (Díaz et al., 2007). This species is currently evaluated as Endangered (EN), following the IUCN categories and criteria (Hedges and Díaz, 2004). Mean threats are the historical loss of suitable habitats and the very limited range of distribution. No further information exist about the impact of the chytrid fungus on this species and other frogs that co-occurs in the same habitats.
Regarding the critical danger that chytrid fungus represent for amphibians, ex situ and in situ conservation efforts are strongly necessary to avoid species extinction. Preliminary experiences on the captive breeding of Peltophryne longinasus longinasus exist (Díaz and Cádiz, 2007), and may represent a good starting point for a long term captive program. This AArk Seed Grant application is intended to obtain support for the following purposes:

1. to develop a facility for ex situ conservation of Peltophryne longinasus in Cuba; and
2. to monitor wild populations of this species and co-occurring frogs, in order to assess the impact and spread of the chytrid fungus, the habitat health and quality, and to gather basic information on the biology of species for a long term conservation.

This project is expected to develop first actions to protect Cuban amphibians from extinction combining ex situ and in situ strategies, particularly in this species in which the chytrid fungus and habitat viability are critical threats for its survival in a period of less than 10 years. New experiences derived from this project will let the opportunity to complete a practical handbook about the biology and captive management of P. longinasus.

The complete project proposal can be viewed here.

Conservation actions for native and threatened amphibians of Colombian Caribbean region – Fundación Botánica y Zoológica de Barranquilla

The amphibian biodiversity of Colombias’s Caribbean region is rich, but most is threatened to some degree. Fundación Botánica y Zoológica de Barranquilla, as the only zoo in the region pretends to contribute to the plight of amphibians via a holistic amphibian conservation project that includes an amphibian exhibition and education program, ex situ conservation via captive breeding program of two local, endangered amphibians; Allobates wayuu (VU-UICN) from Makuira National Natural Park and Colostethus ruthvenni (EN-UICN) from Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, educational activities at the zoo and at localities where endangered amphibians are found and by monitoring the health of several amphibian populations. Both species, assessed by the Colombian-AArk species prioritization workshop in 2007, were recommended for captive breeding programs. We hope to make people aware about amphibians, the threats they are facing and the actions we could do to protect them both in wild and at the zoo.

The complete project proposal can be viewed here.

Frogs and toads from south-western Colombia: Jewels of nature that our grandsons should know – MSc. Jonh Jairo Mueses-Cisneros

Colombia has one of the highest amphibian diversity in the world; and Southwestern Colombian (with nearly 290 amphibian species) contributes with 40% of this diversity. However, in spite of this high diversity, the conservation efforts toward this imperiled group are very scarce. From 2004, we have worked successfully on in situ conservation projects in the region focusing on species of special concern. At the moment, we consider that our efforts should be directed towards the implementation of responsible ex situ conservation programs for amphibians, accompanied by a detailed environmental education plan involving local people and the construction of legal policies to guarantee the survival of these species and their habitat.

We have prioritized 45 species from SW Colombia that require immediate ex situ conservation actions (most of these species were not prioritized for the Amphibian Ark and other Colombian institutions in 2007, due to the lack of information at the time). To help save all of the 45 species, would require an ambitious, long term, large scale project, however, we have devised a scheme that would allow us to build facilities and have an operating program within two years in order to be able to start the breeding and reproduction phase for seven of this species. The funds requested to AArk will be used in:

1. training of two members of our team on amphibian husbandry techniques and the rearing of feeder insect colonies at internationally recognized ex situ institutions in Ecuador, (the only facilities currently housing amphibians that are phylogenetically similar to the ones targeted in our project)
2. Environmental education for local people and environmental authorities to improve the quality of existing amphibian habitats, and
3. Engage in policy-making efforts to enact legal actions for these species and their habitats.

The complete project proposal can be viewed here.

Bolivian amphibian initiative – Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d’Orbigny

Bolivia is a mega-diverse country with very unique fauna; unfortunately this high richness contrasts with limited economical resources, and current deficient knowledge of its biodiversity. Still areas in Bolivia never studied, or species and their natural history completely unknown for biologists. We want to focus our work in the Bolivian High-Andes where very few studies were carried out, and where several events like habitat loss, pollution, global warming and a lethal fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), are causing local and global extinctions. The project will work with the poorly known aquatic frogs of the genus Telmatobius mainly with the critically endangered species Titicaca Water Frog Telmatobius culeus and with the vulnerable Water Frog Telmatobius hintoni in Cochabamba Department. We will use these two species as model species so in the near future we will be able to work with the other 12 Bolivian species of Telmatobius that are classified as endangered in the IUCN red list of threatened species.
This project is based in three main components: Monitoring, Education, training and captive breeding. The aim is the conservation of threatened Bolivian amphibians; we want to give an emphasis on Telmatobius because this group is being under pressure and high risk of extinction. The goals are:

1. To provide information regarding ecological requirements, breeding periods and activity, population status estimation, determination of the presence of Bd fungus in both species.
2. To develop in situ capacity building with local community members and to train young Bolivian biologists in amphibian work.
3. To increase awareness about amphibian crisis in local communities and general people through activities, exhibitions and different media at the communities and in the Museum.
4. To set up a captive breeding facility in the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d’Orbigny with two species of Telmatobius for research and education purposes.

The complete project proposal can be viewed here.

Amphibian Ark Seed Grant program

Although the call for applications for 2011 grants has not yet been announced, information about the application process is available here.