Friday, June 2, 2017

Looking at ex situ Amphibian programs

Amphibian populations are in trouble. According to the Amphibian survival Alliance (amphibians.org) entire species are being driven to extinction by threats that include loss of habitat, disease, contamination and climate change. At least one third of all Amphibians are classified as threatened (Hoffman, et. al, 2010; Biega, et. al, 2017). Conservation initiatives are needed to reverse this trend. Biega, et. al. examined “the extent to which zoos house species representing the greatest overall conservation priority by testing how eight variables relating to extinction risk – International Union for the Conservation of Nature status, habitat specialization, obligate stream breeding, geographic range size, body size and island, high-altitude and tropical endemism – vary between amphibian species held in zoos and their close relatives not held in zoos” (Biega, et. al. page 113).

You can read methods and results from this study published in Animal Conservation, Vol 20, Issue 2 [Full citation below].

To summarize the article briefly, researchers found that zoos and other ex situ programs as a whole are not targeting the high risk amphibian species. If range-restricted habitat specialist species are not a focus, populations will continue to decline without a safety net. Researchers suggest that zoos increase their conservation-focused amphibian species holdings.

Reference:
Biega, A., Greenberg, D.A., Mooers, A.O., Jones, O.R., Martin, T.E., 2017. Global representation of threatened amphibians ex situ is bolstered by non-traditional institutions, but gaps remain. Animal Conservation. Volume 20, Issue 2. Pages 113–119. DOI: 10.1111/acv.12297 

Hoffman, M., Hilton-Taylor, C., Angulo, A., Bohm, M., Brooks, T.M., Butchart, S.H., Carpenter, K.E., et al. (2010).The impact of conservation on the World’s vertebrates. Science 330, 1503–1509.


Image credit: Amphibians.org