Frogs, toads and other amphibians are among the most beautiful creatures on the planet. They are instantly recognisable to most people, and to many, they hold a deep fascination. They occupy a wide range of land and water habitats, on every continent except in Antarctica.

By participating in this event, you will help raise awareness of the plight the world’s amphibians and play an important role in helping to save them.

Sir David Attenborough
Amphibian Ark Patron

In this article, Maura R. O’Connor writes about the captive breeding program established in the US to help save the spray toad, and the elaborate recovery and reintroduction plan for the species.

Red the full story: www.guernicamag.com/features/2160/oconnor_11_15_10/

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania and NEW YORK — When it came to a choice between a hydropower dam that would provide electricity to one-third of Tanzania and a tiny endangered toad, the dam won.

But the Kihansi toad lives on thanks to the efforts of Tanzania and two American zoos.

One hundred of the critically endangered Kihansi spray toads, bred in laboratories in the United States, were returned to Tanzania last week where they will live in the area for the first time in 10 years.

Read the full story…

Abstract
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is one of the most pathogenic microorganisms affecting amphibians in both captivity and in nature. The establishment of B. dendrobatidis free, stable, amphibian captive breeding colonies is one of the emergency measures that is being taken to save threatened amphibian species from extinction. For this purpose, in vitro antifungal susceptibility testing and the development of effi cient and safe treatment protocols are required. In this study, we evaluated the use of amphotericin B and voriconazole to treat chytridiomycosis in amphibians. The concentration at which the growth of fi ve tested B. dendrobatidis strains was inhibited was 0.8 μ g/ml for amphotericin B and 0.0125 μ g/ml for voriconazole. To completely eliminate a mixture of sporangia and zoospores of strain IA042 required 48 h of exposure to 8 μ g/ml of amphotericin B or 10 days to 1.25 μ g/ml of voriconazole. Zoospores were killed within 0.5 h by 0.8 μ g/ml of amphotericin B, but even after 24 h exposure to 1.25 μ g/ml of voriconazole they remained viable. Amphotericin B was acutely toxic for Alytes muletensis tadpoles at 8 μ g/ml, whereas toxic side effects were not noticed during a seven-day exposure to voriconazole at concentrations as high as 12.5 μ g/ml. The voriconazole concentrations remained stable in water during this exposure period. On the basis of this data, experimentally inoculated postmetamorphic Alytes cisternasii were sprayed once daily for 7 days with a 1.25 μ g/ml solution of voriconazole in water which eliminated the B. dendrobatidis infection from all treated animals. Finally, treatment of a naturally infected colony of poison dart frogs (Dendrobatidae) using this protocol, combined with environmental disinfection, cleared the infection from the colony.

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Abstract

Background
Significant shifts in climate are considered a threat to plants and animals with significant physiological limitations and limited dispersal abilities. The southern Appalachian Mountains are a global hotspot for plethodontid salamander diversity. Plethodontids are lungless ectotherms, so their ecology is strongly governed by temperature and precipitation. Many plethodontid species in southern Appalachia exist in high elevation habitats that may be at or near their thermal maxima, and may also have limited dispersal abilities across warmer valley bottoms.

Methodology/Principal Findings
We used a maximum-entropy approach (program Maxent) to model the suitable climatic habitat of 41 plethodontid salamander species inhabiting the Appalachian Highlands region (33 individual species and eight species included within two species complexes). We evaluated the relative change in suitable climatic habitat for these species in the Appalachian Highlands from the current climate to the years 2020, 2050, and 2080, using both the HADCM3 and the CGCM3 models, each under low and high CO2 scenarios, and using two-model thresholds levels (relative suitability thresholds for determining suitable/unsuitable range), for a total of 8 scenarios per species.

Conclusion/Significance
While models differed slightly, every scenario projected significant declines in suitable habitat within the Appalachian Highlands as early as 2020. Species with more southern ranges and with smaller ranges had larger projected habitat loss. Despite significant differences in projected precipitation changes to the region, projections did not differ significantly between global circulation models. CO2 emissions scenario and model threshold had small effects on projected habitat loss by 2020, but did not affect longer-term projections. Results of this study indicate that choice of model threshold and CO2 emissions scenario affect short-term projected shifts in climatic distributions of species; however, these factors and choice of global circulation model have relatively small affects on what is significant projected loss of habitat for many salamander species that currently occupy the Appalachian Highlands.

Read full article: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0012189?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+plosone/PLoSONE+(PLoS+ONE+Alerts:+New+Articles)

The New Zealand government has caved to public pressure, announcing that it is dropping all plans to mine in protected areas. The plan to open 7,000 hectares of protected areas to mining would have threatened a number of rare and endemic species, including two frogs that are prehistoric relics virtually unchanged from amphibian fossils 150 million years old: Archey’s frog (Leiopelma archeyi) and Hochstetter’s frog (Leiopelma hochstetteri).

Read the full story: http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0720-hance_nz_mining.html

Abstract

Amphibian populations around the world are experiencing unprecedented declines attributed to a chytrid fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Despite the severity of the crisis, quantitative analyses of the effects of the epidemic on amphibian abundance and diversity have been unavailable as a result of the lack of equivalent data collected before and following disease outbreak. We present a community-level assessment combining long-term field surveys and DNA barcode data describing changes in abundance and evolutionary diversity within the amphibian community of El Copé, Panama, following a disease epidemic and mass-mortality event. The epidemic reduced taxonomic, lineage, and phylogenetic diversity similarly. We discovered that 30 species were lost, including five undescribed species, representing 41% of total amphibian lineage diversity in El Copé. These extirpations represented 33% of the evolutionary history of amphibians within the community, and variation in the degree of population loss and decline among species was random with respect to the community phylogeny. Our approach provides a fast, economical, and informative analysis of loss in a community whether measured by species or phylogenetic diversity.

Read the full article: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/07/09/0914115107

See http://7thspace.com/headlines/347320/museum_material_reveals_a_frog_parasite_emergence_after_the_invasion_of_the_cane_toad_in_australia.html for the full story…

Project title

Region South America

Contact Luis A. Coloma

Position Director

Primary institution Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas. Centro de Investigación y Conservación de Anfibios (CICA)

Address Av. 12 de Octubre 1076 y Roca, Apartado postal: 17-01-2184

Telephone 593-2-2991700 Ext. 2222

Email lcoloma@puce.edu.ec

Web page http://www.puce.edu.ec/zoologia/balsasapos/index.html

Other institutions Amaru Zoo in Cuenca, Ecuador;  Universidad de Guayaquil

Subject Captive propagation; Education; Establishment of assurance populations; Ex situ conservation; Ex situ research; Habitat protection; Husbandry; In situ research; Population ecology

Species Atelopus spumarius, A. nanay, A. exiguus, A. elegans, A. sp. nov 1, A. sp nov 2,  A. sp nov 3; Centrolene buckleyi; Gastrotheca riobambae, G. pseustes, G. litonedis, G. plumbea, G. testudinea, G. sp nov.; Osornophryne guacamayo; Nelsonophryne aequatorialis; Hyloxalus vertebralis, H. delatorreae, H. jacobuspetersi; Hyloscirtus pantostictus, H. larinopygion, H. psarolaimus, H. lindae, H. ptychodactylus, H. sp 1, H. sp 2, H. sp. 3.

Start date January 2006

Finish date No end date

Comments AIMS: To contribute to the conservation of the biodiversity in regions of global significance1, by supporting the execution of actions to prevent the extinction of the amphibians, which are essential components of that diversity. To promote and facilitate the implementation of national and international policies, strategies, plans, and agendas formulated to manage biodiversity.

OBJECTIVE: To catalyze and optimize the protection and recovery of the Ecuadorian amphibians in risk of extinction through the implementation of a Strategic Plan of Conservation.

OPERATIONAL PROGRAMS: I) Monitoring and Research, II) Improving local capacities, III) Ex situ management for the conservation of the native amphibians,  V) Environmental education and public awareness, V) Bioinformatics and Diffusion of Information, VI) In situ conservation.

The Balsa de los Sapos Initiative cooperates with other institucions: Amaru Zoo in Cuenca, Ecuador  (Training for ex situ mangement. Provision of individuals for back colonies of H. vertebralis). Universidad de Guayaquil (Training for ex situ management of Ceratophrys stolzmanni)

Total project amount 30,000,000

Yearly $ support $200,000

Supplies Any supply is welcome

Needs specifications Support is needed for capacity building and for an endowment fund to garantee the continuity of the project in the long term.

Financing institutions Saint Louis Zoo, JRS foundation, Senacyt

Other non-amphibian programs www.zoologia.puce.eu.ec/Proyectos.aspx

Country Ecuador