From former Bx Zoo Herpetologist: Pet Frogs Used to Fund Conservation – a promising strategy

[findi]

Hi All,

Decades of work in zoos and the pet trade has, I believe, given me a unique perspective on the contributions that each can make to amphibian conservation. Over the years, I have been greatly influenced by the work of private keepers who, in some cases, bred rare species long before zoos. Indeed, numerous husbandry techniques used in zoos originated in the private sector. In general, however, the pet trade focuses on pets and conservationists focus on conservation. But Wikiri, an enterprise formed to support amphibian conservation and research, combines the best of both worlds by using captive-bred frogs to promote its goals. In doing so, Wikiri has broken new ground in addressing the amphibian extinction crisis. Read article here: http://bitly.com/Lp7vXJ

Comments and questions appreciated. As I do not place notices here each time I post a new article on That Reptile Blog, you may wish to check in periodically or subscribe; you can do so here http://bitly.com/JJNk9h. Please also check out my posts on Twitter http://bitly.com/JP27Nj.

 

[Galapoheros]

That was interesting to read. Thoughts pop into my head like, "Is the Chytrid disease in fact recent, or is it 10's of 1000's of years old, coming in waves with little to do with what humans do? Or has it been around for 1000's of years, and only exasperated by what humans do, that makes more sense to me. I also wonder if a general ratio of extinctions have been occurring all along, while other sps evolve, but that maybe it's the case that we now have the technology and research to see these extinctions in progress and not being able to recognize evolving sps. So might we be panicking, as if it's a new phenomenon while in fact it might be business as usual(?) I know though, the "slash and burning" doesn't help! I like the idea of private breeders taking things on. There are some sps out there that are more common in the breeder world than in nature, the exolotl might be an example. So maybe zoos should seek the private sector out to increase the odds of the survival of threatened sps, to secure supply. It's what they enjoy and they are able to give back at the same time.

 

[findi]

Hi and sorry for the delay in responding; technology, and far more people in the field than years ago do play a large role as you say; also overlapping or confusing problems. i.e when the "deformed frog" phenom first became news, people were finding them all over, blaming pollutants, etc. Atrazine and some others are severe concerns, but some of the deformities are due to normally occurring parasites; parasite need to be inside a frog and a wading bird - by deforming rear leg development, parasite increases chances that host frog will be caught by a heron, etc - amazing!

also, I too believe environmental stressors could worsen existing/normal problems. In zoos, when we move a bird from 1 exhibit to another, we dose it to protect from Aspergillosus. Birds breath this fungus in every day, but when stressed by change in habitat frequently become ill from an infection and die.

I was involved in a major cooperative effort bet zoos and private turtle keepers after a seizure of 10,000 turtloes in HK some years ago, Turtle Survival Alliance grew out of this - all sounded good on paper, but zoo politics are as bad and annoying as in most other fields, and not much has been done...but at least the idea is out there. On this topic, you may enjoy:

http://bitly.com/NffGMg and http://bitly.com/NxsrBT

Great ideas, we need more people in zoos and private sector to be thinking along these lines. Please consider posting on my blog, as other of my readers would benefit from your input. I do get notices of comments here as well, however, and will get back to you, best, Frank