This directory includes experts in a wide range of fields related to captive amphibian programs. It is intended to benefit anyone who is involved with conservation programs for captive amphibians.
Please note: If you are not directly involved with captive conservation programs for amphibians, we ask that you consider searching for any information you need on our web site, or using an internet search engine rather than contacting the people below. Due to their existing workloads, these people are unable to answer emails that are not from people involved with captive amphibian programs. Please consider using these other resources to find the help you need: Amphibian Husbandry, Chytrid Fungus, AArk Documents, Amphibians on the Web.
Federico Pablo Kacoliris
Calle 122 y 60 s/n La Plata Buenos Aires 1900 Argentina
Mr Chris Banks
PO Box 74 Parkville Victoria 3052 Australia
Ms Raelene Hobbs
PO Box 74 Parkville Victoria Australia
Kevin Johnson
Biography
Assists Amphibian Ark partners in identifying priority taxa and regions for ex situ conservation work using the Conservation Needs Assessment process (http://www.ConservationNeeds.org).
Also develop communications strategies, messages, newsletters and other materials to promote understanding and action on behalf of amphibian conservation and assist AArk partner organizations in reaching multiple audiences within AArk organizations, the conservation community, governments, and the public.
Co-Chair of the IUCN ASG Captive Breeding Working Group.
Bellingen NSW Australia
Erika Marantelli
Victoria Australia
Gerry Marantelli
Victoria Australia
Michael McFadden
Biography
I currently co-ordinate amphibian conservation programs at Taronga Zoo, including those for species such as the northern and southern corroboree frog and yellow-spotted bell frog. This has previously included other threatened species such as the Booroolong frog, green and golden bell frog and alpine tree frog.
I am also co-convenor of the ZAA (Zoo and Aquarium Association) Amphibian TAG.
I have assisted Amphibian Ark to instruct amphibian conservation and husbandry workshops in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.
PO Box 20 Mosman NSW 2088 Australia
Arturo Munoz
Av. Potosi 1458 Cochabamba Cochabamba Bolivia
Andrea Gielens
Biography
Andrea Gielens has a Bachelors degree in zoology and animal behaviour and a Masters degree in Environmental Management. She has worked both in Canada and Europe, at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, with captive breeding, augmentation and in situ conservation programs for many species of amphibians and chelonians. She has worked extensively with both the Oregon Spotted frog Recovery Team (since 2006) as well as the Western Painted Turtle Recovery team (since 2010) both in the field and with the augmentation and population recovery programs for both species. She focuses on working with multi species wetland conservation initiatives including restoration, augmentation, and monitoring.
7 27234 30th ave Aldergrove BC V4W3G7 Canada
Dr Andrew Lentini
361A Old Finch Ave Toronto Ontario M1B 5K7 Canada
Carlos Andrés Galvis
Carrera 2 Oeste Calle 14 esquina Cali Valle del Cauca Colombia
Sandra Marcela Gómez
Biography
Sandra Gomez is Animal Husbandry from the La Salle University in Bogota, she got a Diploma Course at the International Training Center at Jersey Zoo UK in 2003, she is doing a Master in Environmental Management, she is a University Teacher in Bogotá, she started work at Santacruz Zoo in 2000, as a Coordinator of the Nutrition department, moved to education conservation Department in 2004.
She works in different conservation projects in animal husbandry an environmental education with local communities. At the institution, it will be running different research in Amphibians from the High Mountains in Colombia, related with species identification, habitat conditions, morphotypes, captive husbandry, in situ nutritional studies, acoustic and others.
Andres Merino-Viteri
Biography
As part of my researcher and lecturer job at Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador, I am in charge of one of the oldest and largest amphibian conservation facilities in Ecuador. Our center keeps over 40 species of ambibians, so our skills include fieldwork, in situ and ex situ research, and husbandry, that we are very open to share with colleagues.
Quito Ecuador
Santiago Ron
Biography
Curator of Amphibians at Museo de Zoología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE). His past and current research has focused on the study of amphibian population declines in the tropical Andes. The amphibian division at Museo de Zoología PUCE hosts Balsa de los Sapos, one of the largest captive breeding facilities in Latin America.
Michael Bungard
Totnes Road Paignton TQ4 7EU England
Benjamin Tapley MSc
Biography
Co-chair IUCN Amphibian Specialist Group, Captive Breeding Working Group.
Chair BIAZA Reptile & Amphibian Working Group.
Amphibian Regional Collection Plan Coordinator EAZA.
London England
Olivier Marquis
Paris Zoo 51 avenue de Saint Maurice Paris 75012 France
Jean Henri Raffaëlli
Biography
IUCN Amphibian Breeding Group specialist on salamanders, Co-President of the French Urodela Group (FUG) and author of the book Les Urodeles du Monde (Salamanders of the World). FUG has experienced in maintaining 200 species of salamanders of which more than 100 have been reproduced in captivity.
PENCLEN Plumelec 56420 France
Dr. Olivier Bongard
Biography
I am DVM and director of Zoo de Guyane, a zoo located in French Guiana (French department in South America continent).
French Guiana
Dr Michael Wai Neng Lau
Hong Kong
Dr. Karthikeyan Vasudevan
Biography
I am a scientist at the Department of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. I have been involved in field research of reptiles and amphibians in India for more than fifteen years.
My research interests are identifying drivers of herpetofaunal endemism, ecology of endangered herp species, development of field techniques for the study of rare and endangered species. I am presently the Co-Chair of the Amphibian Specialist Group for South Asia region excluding Sri Lanka.
162 Pillar PVNR Expressway Hyderguda Hyderabad 500 048 India
Dr. Luis Carrillo
Biography
Luis has worked with Amphibian Ark in a voluntary assisting in the organization, development, facilitation and/or as lecturer of many AArk’s Conservation Needs Assessment workshops and amphibian biology and management courses in Latin-America, and he is now our full-time Training Officer. Since 2005, Luis has also worked with the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG/SSC/IUCN) Regional Network Mexico and since 2012, has been the regional representative for Mexico with the main role of organizing and facilitating conservation workshops for many species in the Latin-American region.
Distrito Federal C.P Mexico
Gustavo Ernesto Quintero Díaz
Aguascalientes Aguascalientes 20000 Mexico
Kristine Schad
Gerardo Garcia
Biography
GERARDO GARCÍA was born in Barcelona (1969, Spain) is the Curator of Lower Vertebrates and Invertebrates for Chester Zoo since March 2012.
He has been Head of the Herpetology Department at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust based in Jersey, United Kingdom (UK) since 2003 until 2012. His herpetological career started at Barcelona Zoo and at the Science Museum of Barcelona (CosmoCaixa) up until 1996 when he moved to work at Thoiry Zoo (Paris, France).
Gerardo completed a Ph.D. at the Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent on the “Ecology, human impact, and conservation of the Madagascan side-necked turtle (Erymnochelys madagascariensis) at Ankarafantsika National Park”, where he lived for two years during his data collection and field work in Madagascar. Gerardo analyzed his data and began to write his thesis at the Laboratoire des Reptiles et Amphibiens, Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle of Paris, moving to Jersey in 2001.
His work with amphibians began in 1992 at the Barcelona Zoo being involved during the early years of the Recovery Programme for the Mallorcan midwife toad. Since then he has been involved with captive breeding programs of reptiles and amphibians in several institutions, linking ex situ with in situ conservation in Jersey (Rana dalmatina and Bufo bufo), Montserrat/Dominica (Leptodactylus fallax), Madagascar (Erymnochelys madagascariensis, Pyxis planicauda, Astrochelys yniphora, Mantella aurantiaca, M. cowani), Spain (Alytes obstetricans and Rana iberica), Mauritius (Nactus coindemirensis and Gongylomorphus fontenayi sp.) and recently in Bermuda (Plestiodon longirostris). During the last few years he has been involved in various training initiatives for amphibians around the world (Colombia, Dominica, France, Germany, India, Madagascar, Mexico, Spain, Montserrat, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden and Venezuela), improving the husbandry protocols of captive colonies and diverse in situ programs such as the Mountain chicken frogs (EAZA EEP Coordinator), genus Alytes and Rana in Spain and the amphibians of Jersey. Since 2012 he is also EAZA EEP Studbook Coordinator for the Komodo dragons and 2016 for the Achoques (Ambystoma dumerilii).
Gerardo has been actively involved in the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA) as chair of the Amphibian Taxon Advisory Group (ATAG) and vice-chair for the Reptile TAG. He’s also member of several IUCN Specialist Group. His major goal is to bring in situ conservation and research for these programs into the core of the EAZA. Gerardo was actively involved in the development of the Amphibian Campaign of the Year of the Frog 2008 and co-directed the first amphibian conservation courses in Europe for Zoos and Aquariums in 2006 continuing until now.
During his first three years at Chester Zoo has been directly involved on the development of the large collection of reptiles, amphibians, fishes and invertebrates to the new projects. One of the greatest developments is the Collection Plan for the development of the new project of Islands with more than 60 species. He also developed the in situ conservation programmes linked with his Departments in countries like Mexico, Madagascar and Indonesia as the diverse applied research projects to support animal welfare and conservation.
Gerardo also takes a great interest in raising the profile of the programmes within both specialist groups and the general public. In his spare time he also assisted other zoological institutions in the development of their animal collections, design exhibits, training staff and off show facilities for reptiles and amphibians and in the development of new conservation programs.
Chester Zoo Cedar House Chester Cheshire CH21LH UK
Matt Goetz
Les Augres Manor Trinity Jersey JE3 5BP UK
Diane Barber
1989 Colonial Parkway Fort Worth TX 76110 USA
Ron Gagliardo
Seattle WA USA
Robert L Hill
800 Cherokee Ave. SE Atlanta Georgia 30315 USA
Mark Louis Mandica
Biography
I am currently managing the Amphibian Conservation Program at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Our program here in the Department of Research and Conservation has 5 major initiatives. 1) Building and maintaining captive assurance/captive breeding colonies of rare and endangered amphibians from the SE United States and neotropics. We maintain, in biosecure isolation, a large portion of Panamanian frogs collected in 2005 in response to the emergent infectious fungal disease — chytrid — which had wiped out approx. 85% of the amphibians from that region. 2) We have been head-starting and experimentally releasing Gopher Frogs (Lithobates capito) into a protected area in South Georgia since 2008. 3) Building a captive breeding colony of the Frosted Flatwoods Salamander (Ambystoma cingulatum) in collaboration with USGS, USFWS, the University of Missouri and others to help protect the imperiled salamander species from imminent extinction. 4) We developed and have initiated the Metro Atlanta Amphibian Monitoring Program, which trains citizen scientists and concerned professionals to identify and monitor the 14 species of frog and 14 species of salamander native to this region of the urban piedmont of GA. Lastly, 5) We regularly do on and off campus education and outreach programs at the elementary through college level on the topics of: Amphibian Conservation, Amphibian Biology and Biodiversity, Biomechanics, Environmental Physiology, Amphibian Identification and Monitoring, and Scientific Illustration.
Department of Research and Conservation Atlanta Botanical Garden Atlanta GA 30309 USA
Dr. Jennifer Pramuk
Biography
Jennifer’s professional zoo experience includes her current position as a curator at the Woodland Park Zoo, where she oversees the endangered Oregon spotted frog and Western pond turtle head starting and release programs. She has taught amphibian husbandry courses through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Amphibian Management School and also in Madagascar and Colombia. In her former position as the curator of herpetology at the Bronx Zoo/Wildlife Conservation society, she worked on the Kihansi spray toad reintroduction program. Jenny has described 21 species of frogs and toads new to science and published more than 25 peer-reviewed papers. Her experience with reintroduction projects has enabled her to become well versed on issues particular to the conservation and reintroduction of endangered species. She currently is an affiliate curator at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture and serves on the Board of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists and as the Co-Chair of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Amphibian Taxon Advisory Group.
5500 Phinney Ave N SEATTLE WA 98117 USA
Dr. Steve Reichling
Memphis Zoo 2000 Prentiss Place Memphis TN 38112 USA
Tom J. Weaver
2300 Steele Street Denver Colorado 80205 USA
Dr. Enrique La Marca Ph.D.
Venezuela
is grateful for the generous support of these organizations that sponsor and/or host our staff
