Bolivian amphibian initiative

The leap day and Photography contest

2012-02-08T17:39:00.000-08:00

LEAP DAY IN BOLIVIA!!!!

Bolivian Amphibian Initiative as part of the “Lipping ahead of extinction” event is planning some great activities to celebrate the Leap day!!!. You, your friends and family are invited to leap to the Natural History Museum Alcide d’Orbigny and be part of this fun amphibian events:

§ Photo contest: In this photo contest participants of all Bolivia can show their talent by taking pictures of wild Bolivian amphibians. There are two categories that include:

o Amphibians in general

o Endangered amphibian species
more information: http://www.bolivianamphibianinitiative.org/Concurso%20fotografia

§ Drawing contest: we invite to all children less than 12 years old to show us their talent by drawing the amphibian they like most!!

§ Climbing like frogs!!!! In this activity all visitors to the Leap day frog in the Natural History Museum can participate of some great climbing games. We’ll have an artificial boulder where all participants can climb, leap and learn whit amphibian related games.

§ Talks and visits: as a part of our celebration we’ll have experts presenting amphibian talks and tours to see some of the great frogs.

§ Games!!!: We’ll have some great learning activities for children that include fun and educational material that can show kids how great is to know about amphibians and how important is to take care of them!

§ Sharing information: finally we’ll show some posters whit information about amphibian crisis and the conservation work carried out in Bolivia.

Bolivian Amphibian Initiative working with local communities

2011-12-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

Local communities are very important to work in conservation, to try to involve them from the beginning and to make them part of the decisions is very important aspect. This is the thing that Bolivian amphibian Initiative is trying from the beginning and this is the case of two localities in Titicaca Lake.

In Sicuani in the amphibian course with the involvement of the community

Sicuani a small community located between Copacabana and Isla del Sol in Titicaca, we are working with them since a couple of years obtaining information about the species, habitat and training some members of the community. This community is very interested to work in tourism and we are exploring some possible ways to work in the area with ecotourism and specific tours that normally are not offered in the area.

Nelzon one young of Sicuani working with us

Sawiña is another small town close to Copacabana, very interested to work in ecotourism and they already have some facilities and also a tour very linked with the frog of the lake. We are supporting them with this initiative and we are organizing training workshops, educational material that they can use for their activities so we together can work for the conservation of this critically endangered species.

Rodrigo and the kayra Uta (house of the frog) the touristic offer of Sawina

Rodrigo showing us the kayra uta and the animals we can see in the lake

Whit this joint effort with local communities we want to ensure the long lasting conservation attitudes of the people. This change of attitudes of local communities will allow us to have better impact in the conservation activities we want to carry out to protect the endangered species of the different areas.

Calendar that will be distributed in the different communities in the lake
"The titicaca water frog is just in the lake, help us to protect it"

Working together for one species

2011-12-01T02:54:00.000-08:00

Telmatobius culeus (critically endangered)

The conservation of one species normally requires a lot of effort and a team work, this is the case of Titicaca water frog (Telmatobius culeus) a critically endangered species. The lake is very big and there is very few information about this species even there is some research done.

going in to the lake with the peruvian team (photo:Raul Berenguel)

This is the reason that since last year we are coordinating our conservation work with the Peruvian project coordinated by Denver Zoo, Universidad Nacional del Altiplano Puno, Peru, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia Lima, Peru. This time we met again in the Peruvian side to plan our next steps in the conservation of this critically endangered frog working in research, captive breeding and education. It was nice feeling that our work of these years provided data that was useful to suggest the next steps of this initiative and now we can start a joint effort to understand better this frog and to be able to do conservation.

Showing the team the methods we use in Bolivia (photo:Raul Berenguel)

This time we were showing and explaining how the work is carried out in Bolivia and explaining the Peruvian team, the methods we use the advantages and disadvantages of these methods. With this we want to use the same methods and to coordinate the work in both countries that are interested to save one species.

The Peruvian team and us (Denver Zoo, Universidad Nacional del Altiplano Puno, Universidad Cayetano Heredia and Bolivian Amphibian Initiative)

Working with a model species

2011-10-23T16:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes to learn and to work with endangered species is risky, this is the reason that sometimes we preffer to work with model species, species that are not so threatened and more common. This is the reason that we took Telmatobius hintoni a frog that is relatively common in the city of Cochabamba, we are working with this species to find good methods to understand better the biology, behavior, reproduction and to learn how we can protect one threatened species in the future with better methods.

monithoring a population of Telmatobius hintoni

We are testing survey methods, estimating population size and biology among others, our student Ramiro is supporting us with this work and until now we found interesting things, some things that can be used with other species and others that don’t work. Also we want to improve our diets in the tadpoles of this species in captivity and finding some ways to work with different individuals and their development in captivity compared with individuals in the wild.

Using natural pattern dessign to identify our individuals

Marking tadpoles for studies

Once we know about different methods we can use it in this aquatic species that lives in streams, so we will be able to use all this knowledge to apply in the other 13 threatened species of Telmatobius that are present in Bolivia. We have been using this way to work with model species in our captive breeding component and with good results and now we already have adult offspring of this species and in the near future of the other species we are working with.

Working with tadpoles and froglets in the lab

One of our objectives is to obtain all this information and to make it accessible for the conservationists. This will be our next step, because we need more people with that knowledge and with the tools to work in amphibian conservation.

New members in the team

2011-10-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

This last time we had changes in the Project, positive changes, and new people with a lot of enthusiasm and with the desire to work in research and amphibian conservation in Bolivia.

Oliver Quinteros, biologist with experience in taxonomy that will support us in the research component and with the amphibian collection work that the museum holds that will allow us to work with the new records of amphibians for Bolivia and even new species to science. This work will help us to know better our species and to understand them.

Ramiro Estrada, a student of biology that wants to carry out a study with Telmatobius hintoni (Vulnerable) with potential and desire to work with amphibians and support the Bolivian Amphibian Initiative.

Consuelo Morales, an enthusiast and promising student of biology, interested to work in conservation, recently involved in the Bolivian amphibian initiative after the high Andean amphibian conservation course. She wants to develop a study in the high lands of one are of Cochabamba with amphibian populations that are threatened and to see the impacts of some human activities in these species, Consuelo now is supporting the project.

Andrea Fuentes, student of environmental engineer, at this moment she is carrying out a internship with the project supporting us in several components like captive breeding, education and general aspects of the project, with a lot of potential and energy in the activities. Her work will help us to improve some aspects in the project and will train her to manage conservation projects.

Our new members join the team with Patricia and Nelzon, open for us the option to carry out more tasks, improve the work we are carrying out and bring us new energy for the amphibian conservation work in Bolivia, at the same way like Bolivian Amphibian Initiative we want to support to the people interested to work in conservation.

more information about our team http://bolivianamphibianinitiative.org/OurTeam

Improving our work in captive breeding

2011-10-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

working with our frogs marking them to have better control

Due to past training experiences we came back with the objective to improve several of our activities within the project. This is the case of the captive breeding work, which we saw that several aspects could be improved.

In this sense, now we are working better with our captive frogs, in some cases treating them to improve their conditions to have better results. Aspects like nutrition, calcium balance, water quality, UV radiation and some environmental changes among others are reflecting better conditions of our frogs, aspect very important in the conservation work we want to develop.

A new model of Titicaca water frog in our exhibition
thanks to the Swedish exhibition project "Con Otros Ojos"

Also we are improving our biosecurity levels that will allow us to have a better management and control of possible diseases of wild and captive amphibians.

Improving our biosecurity levels in the container

Improvements in our work can have a big impact in the captive amphibians we are holding and this thanks to the people and institutions like Durrell that is supporting us in this process of amphibian conservation. All these experiences we want to share with other countries that are working or want to work in captive breeding projects with Telmatobius; in this way to work faster with the species that need our help.

Working with live food

Team working in the facilities

High Andean Amphibian Conservation Course

2011-09-17T17:34:00.000-07:00

High Andean Amphibian conservation course Titicaca 2011

Capacity building is a key component to make changes; it is a way to provide the information, the skills and the desire to work for a goal. One of the aims/ goals of the Bolivian amphibian Initiative are to train young biologists, students and veterinarians also involving park-rangers and local communities. In this case we organized the Course of Conservation of High Andean Amphibians, in Titicaca Lake for one week; there were 20 students from different areas of Bolivia and also some participants from Peru and Brazil.

practical activites about conservation

It was a great experience, to meet young people with a lot of ideas and enthusiasm to work with amphibians. Also was a refreshing period, where everybody shared their work and learned various aspects about amphibians.

water test practice

Water test practice

They acquired some tools for conservation, like education, planning, fundraising, captive breeding and fieldwork techniques. These tools provided a general view about conservation and how they can use in the real life and their work with amphibians in Latin America.

fieldwork and biosecurity

We also had the support from some specialists working with High Andean amphibians in Bolivia that provided valuable information and experience, where the participants were able to see real cases in amphibian work.

We learned a lot from their experiences and due to organizing this course and thanks to the suggestions of the participants we want to improve our work and the next courses we are planning to organize.

In search of Telmatobius

In search of the frogs

Post mortem practice

It was also a good opportunity to bring together people that are working with amphibians in various subjects in different areas. Now this people will be able to work together, share information and with the support of Bolivian Amphibian Initiative we want to start a network of young biologists working in different amphibian projects and as Bolivian amphibian Initiative www.bolivianamphibianinitiative.org we will support their work.

learning about frogs playing

Origami with frogs

Amphibian Husbandry Course in Argentina

2011-07-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

Amphibian Husbandry course participants

Information and capacity building are some of the needs in countries of South America, in this way to work more efficiently in conservation. Is for this reason that Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust www.durrell.org with Amphibian Ark www.amphibianark.org, ALPZA, TEMAIKÉN and Universidad Nacional de Jujuy organized the course “Manejo y conservación de anfibios en cautiverio” (Amphibian husbandry Course) in Buenos Aires Argentina.

Exercise with different options for UV lights

UV light reading out in the sun

In this occasion we collaborated in the course with the experience of the Bolivian amphibian Initiative www.bolivianamphibianinitiative.org with the work we carry out and with the tools are available in a country like Bolivia, showing options, limitations, success and failures working with amphibians. We also were able to share the knowledge acquired these last months in the Conservation Training internship at Durrell.

water quality test options

Water quality test exercise

This course took several subjects about amphibian conservation with a main focus in captive breeding. It provided information, experiences about the captive breeding work, with aspects like amphibian care (temperature, water quality, nutrition, enclosure design and others), diseases, biosecurity and amphibian population management among others.

Marking techniques exercise

The participants developed ex-situ plans for five Latin-American species of amphibians. This also was a great opportunity to gather people working with amphibians, not just conservationist also other areas that working together can improve the conservation work with endangered amphibians.

Post mortem exercise

After this course several participants went back to their countries with a lot new ideas and plans to organize or improve their amphibian conservation projects. Also with the new contacts that now we know and that we can work together with the goal to try to save species from extinction.

Creating our enclosure exercise 1

Creating our enclosure exercise 2

Creating our enclosure exercise 3

Conservation Internship at Durrell 2011

2011-07-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

The Herpetology department at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust

Due to the work that we are carrying out in Bolivia the International Training Centre of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust ( www.durrell.org ), along with other biologists throughout South America such as those we met at the Amphibian conservation Course in Titicaca lake in 2009, is supporting us to develop our project in Bolivia.

I have just returned from a four month internship with the Herpetology and Veterinary department at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, where I learnt many new skills.

Working with local species, the Agile frog

Working in the reintroduction programe of the Agile frog

During my Internship I was provided with the skills that are necessary to maximize our impacts on amphibian conservation within Bolivia. During my stay I had the chance to learn about a combination of practical hands-on amphibian husbandry training and complementary training in areas necessary to develop and run amphibian conservation projects. The four month internship improved my knowledge of amphibian captive breeding, GIS, education, laboratory and veterinary work with amphibian samples and the strategies of designing successful conservation projects. These skills can be applied in the work that we are carrying out in Bolivia, with a particular focus on actions to be taken to conserve the Telmatobius species (such as the Titicaca water frog).

Learning in the veterinary department, working with amphibians

On a personal note it was also a great opportunity for me to learn about the work of other conservationists. I made many new contacts and was given the chance to work with people who are so passionate about conservation.

Working with endangered species, the Mountain chicken

Now with these new techniques, and with renewed energy, I've returned to Bolivia to continue our project and I feel that the experience will allow us to work in better ways in the important conservation of Bolivian amphibians

Learning marking techniques

Did Chytrid fungus arrived here?

2011-04-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

In one of our localities in Oruro, when we were working we talked with some local people and they told us, you are not going to find any frogs, there is no anymore frogs here. And then we started to have a conversation about that.

Our camp in one locality in Oruro

One of the guys asked us if we don’t know about the war of the frogs, he told us you must know because you work with frogs. Well he started with the story about this.

Some years ago (the same time of the war in Iraq, he said) the frogs went to this war to fight and a lot of dead frog were observed this period, he told us that there were a lot of dead frogs everywhere, they died in the war he told us. Since then people don’t see frogs, but recently they starting to see some, they are coming back he said, now that the war is finished they are coming back and now you can see some of them coming back.

This is an interesting information that maybe is a story but also can be related to a possible arrival of Chytrid to the area some years ago and also that can explain that there are no frogs in the area, would be interesting to see if the Chytrid arrived there, because it is not the first time that we hear this kind of stories about frogs disappearing in different areas.

This also can provide important information about this disease and the effects in Bolivian amphibian populations.

Our team in the mountains in search of frogs (Eleonore, MArina, Sarah and Arturo)

Finding new amphibian populations

2011-04-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

Our team during the fieldwork (Eleonore, Sarah and Marina)

After our first site we continued our travel to Sucre and we went back to Cajamarca to monitor the Telmatobius simonsi population we found previously, we found some individuals and it seems that even there are very few, they are ok.

Telmatobius simonsi found in the streams

After that place we moved to Potosi area were we worked in several localities and some of them we found a lot of frogs, of a endemic frog (Hypsiboas alboniger) and also water frog (Telmatobius) in high numbers, it seems that at least this population are in good conditions and we think that this can be a good place to monitor these populations in the future.

Sarah taking notes of the individual she found

In some transects we found even hundreds of frogs and very active and also tadpoles and juveniles of different species. We took data of all the individuals we found and also Chytrid samples to be analyzed later to have a better idea how is the situation in Bolivia with this issue.

With all this information we will be able to prioritize our effort trying to protect the endangered species of Bolivian amphibians.

Hypsiboas alboniger a very common species in some localities

Increasing awareness about amphibians

2011-04-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

This time we organized a long trip to different sites of Bolivia, trying to find new populations of Telmatobius and to obtain basic data about population status of the species that we find over there and to carry out educational workshops to teach some facts about amphibians.

school kids writing down what things they know about amphibians

Our first stop was in Rodeo a small town about 3600 m asl. After our fieldwork we organized educational workshops in the local school, we realized that almost nothing is known about the frogs they have in the surroundings and if they see frogs, sometimes they even kill the frogs.

Giving a talk about amphibians

It was interesting to see how they reacted to the information we provided them and also just watching the frogs in the pictures they were very excited. At the end of the workshop we gave them our book of Bolivian amphibians with pictures and information of the amphibians of Bolivia. also the authorities were very interested and they ask us to go back to the community to keep working in the area, even we did not find endangered species they told us that before Telmatobius was common.

We gave our book of Bolivian amphibians to the school

At the end of the workshop we gave to the school our recently published book of Bolivian amphibians where they can learn about our amphibians and we plan to do the same with other schools accross Bolivia.

Working together for the conservation

2011-02-25T19:18:00.003-08:00

Working together allow us better results, this is the reason that this year two students are coming to work with us.

Marina, a student from Bulgaria that is doing her master in Holland, came to do her research with Telmatobius culeus in the Lake Titicaca. She is both using our current methods and improving some things; her work will provide very interesting data about the population size and habitat preference of the Titicaca lake frog--information we can use for conserving these amphibians in the future.

Marina working with us in the Lake

Eleonore, a student from Belgium, came to work with us for four months in all the localities where we are working. She will also help with the captive breeding of frogs, education of local communities, and her experience will help us to improve our work. This work is part of a internship program that we are developing with some institutions, so both sides will benefit from this joint work.

Sarah (left) and Eleonore (right) waiting to go into the water and search for frogs

Sarah, a biologist from USA that is spending some time in Bolivia, became interested in the project while staying in Cochabamba. She joined our team to help with fieldwork throughout Bolivia, and came along for this trip to Titicaca.

Our team also started to teach English to the people of Sicuani. They requested that we teach them English because their town depends on tourism, and they realized that English is an important skill to develop this activity further. This is a great opportunity to start introducing ideas about conservation to the locals, and to involve them in the recuperation of this critically endangered species' habitat.

Kids from Sicuani learning English

We are very happy that foreign institutions and individuals are interested in protecting our endangered species. Having students come from all over the world helps us both by providing valuable research and by bringing new ideas and methods to Bolivia.

frog juice

2011-02-25T19:12:00.000-08:00

Frogs are under several threats, like habitat damage, invasive species, and overharvestation. Frogs are harvested by people for food, medecine, and spiritual reasons; the Lake Titicaaca frog is no exception. We wanted to witness the trade in frog juice; to do this, we had to cross the border to the small town on the Peruvian side of the lake, where we saw how people prepare this special mix of several ingredients: soup of frogs, sugar, chicken eggs, brewer's yeast, honey, maca, and a raw frog. These ingredients are mixed in a blender and then offered to the local people as a restoritive drink.

Some of the women that buy the juice told us that they drink one or two cups of the juice every week for eye problems, for brain enhancement, and any other heath problems. People selling this juice claim that it offers a “cure” for almost everything, even unknown diseases. Previous studies found that these juices can contain nematodes and salmonella, among other things.

One of the problems of this situation is that a lot of frogs are captured for this activity, even though this species is critically endangered. One frog seller told us that he collects about 500 to 1000 frogs every 15 days. Given that there are a lot of people selling the juice, you can calculate more or less how many frogs are collected every month or year.

Like we saw before, this activity is starting to enter Bolivia. In El Alto city and Cochabamba, you can see people offering the “cure,” while exploiting these frogs. It is necessary to start doing something to avoid this situation in Bolivia and to protect our species.

big frogs in the lake

2011-02-22T09:27:00.000-08:00

One of the species which we are working with is Titicaca water frog, this time we went with our team, Ugo a young student that is going to study biology and want to learn the work that one biologist do normally, together with Ineke, Rodrigo and our friend from the local community Nelson and his father Hilario.

Rodrigo and Ugo in search of frogs with the help of gustavo and their friends

We did our transects diving and with snorkel in the area were normally do and found some dead individuals that we collected, also some small and medium size individuals.

Next day we had a meeting with the new authorities about our work and some ideas for the future and they invited me for the community meeting the next days. This opportunity will allow us to work better with them.

The meeting with the local community

Then with our motor boat we went to one place that we did not check before, first we did not find too much and then a big frog! Then we started to see several frogs, all of them big!! . Later we also found individuals in amplexus it was a nice opportunity to dive and to take pictures and film this couple. Minutes later we spotted a huge frog in the bottom the lake about 5 meters of depth again an opportunity to dive and this was the biggest frog we saw in this 3 years.

A couple of frogs in amplexus

Then in the meeting with the local community after a short presentation they told us that they were interested to work with us and also they want to try to find some way to protect the species, probably with ecotourism, or other activities that will not affect the species and the habitat.

recording the coordinates were we find the frogs

We also saw the Jack Cousteau documentary he filmed in 1973 and the work with the frogs, showing the very interesting findings and estimating the size of the population. It was very interesting to see how the people from the community were very excited about the film because they recognized areas and people.

After this trip we realized that there are some areas that still with big frogs and also in good conditions and we hope that we can work in the conservation of these populations and work together with local communities.

In search of Telmatobius in Chuquisaca II

2011-01-22T14:07:00.000-08:00

Trying to find more Telmatobius we went to the area of Cajamarca some kilometers northwest of Sucre, in this area we worked in some streams that was very interesting for Telmatobius.

The first day the first hours just Hypsiboas alboniger present and then… yes! We found the first night two individuals! This time one female and some minutes later a male. They were the same species probably but we need to work with these individuals, now we have some possible founders for our captive breeding projects of Telmatobius.

The following days were interesting also finding some frogs, another species too, like Hypsiboas alboniger and Pleurodema cinereum.

We measured some parameters of the water in the area and some information of the habitat that will allow us to monitor in the future and also took Chytrid samples of all the areas were we worked in this and the previous places. This will allow us to have one idea of how the amphibian populations are going and where the Chytrid fungus is present or not.

In search of Telmatobius in Chuquisaca I

2011-01-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

One of the objectives of our project is to find Telmatobius populations and to see how is going with those species. For this purpose we went to Chuquisaca in two areas. Icla located in the southeast of Sucre, the capital. We expended some days in the area looking for Telmatobius, for several days we just found the other common species and one near threatened species (Hypsiboas alboniger). Then just in the last days working in the area we found one big female of Telmatobius with the very yellow belly, Telmatobius simonsi, one species that we were looking for several years finally we found it. But unfortunately we found just one individual in all the time we were over there.

In this place we found a kid that told us that normally he see all the time some frogs in the river and with the description we can say that they are Telmatobius. The kid helped us to look for the frogs, unfortunatelly we could not find any frogs, but was interesting the data that the kid gave us about the area and the frogs.

There is a hope to find more individuals in the future going back to the place. In our return to Sucre we found some children hunting something in the water, we stopped and yes, they were hunting with rocks some frogs and we already found some dead and destroyed frogs, we ask them why were they hunting and they just told us, just for fun… so we took out our equipment and told them if they wanted to help us to study the frogs and we started to measure the water quality, take samples of the skin, taking coordinates and explain them all about amphibians, diversity, how useful are they and why are they important in the area. When we were talking with them they were watching the frogs in different way and also helping us to take samples. We also told them that we are working in all Bolivia with the frogs and they were interested in this different new information about amphibians, previously just a slamy thing that they used to hunt, we don’t know how was the impact of that talk but after we left the kids were talking around the pond and not hunting anymore.

Titicaca water frog conservation workshop

2010-12-21T04:59:00.000-08:00

The Titicaca water frog is one species that is critically endangered, the populations size is decreasing based in some studies and it is needed immediate actions to protect this species. One big step was the workshop to establish the strategy for the conservation of Titicaca wat

er frog (Telmatobius culeus) organized by the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano, Denver Zoo

and the SSC/UICN/CBSG Mesoamerica.

This workshop was a big step for the conser

vation of the frog and joined several researchers, conservationist and different stakeholders. One interesting aspect was that this workshop involved people from Peru and Bolivia so we can join efforts to protect the species and the habitat where this unique species is present. We participated in this meeting sharing all the experiences we had with the species in research, education, capacity building and captive breeding of Telmatobius culeus, another important output was the contacts we obtained with different people and institutions that worked or are working with the species. After all this process we are developing our next steps to work with the species not isolated but working with other partners so we provide better results and

impacts for the conservation of the species.

After this activity we also went to the field to find some in

dividuals in the wild and it was interesting to find different individuals just after some minutes swimming in the lake, the same situation like the Bolivian side of the lake.

Being present in this meeting was very useful for us because helped us to see that we are not alone in this work and that we can work together with more people and try to protect the

amphibian biodiversity and their endangered species.

New Container for our frogs

2010-12-10T10:53:00.000-08:00

This time with very good news, thanks to the support of some institutions like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Rufford Small Grants, The NAJU (Naturschutzjugend), Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Amphibian Ark.

Recently we obtained a new container that will be used to hold the endangered species of Telmatobius of Bolivia, holding different species and all of them in the red list of the IUCN.

This new container needs some work but once this is ready, it will really make a difference in our work. Until now we had the first offspring of Telmatobius hintoni, now we want to start with Telmatobius culeus and with the container will allow us to keep them in better conditions and with more options to soon have an offspring.

A hope for Bolivian amphibians in captivity

2010-11-29T04:08:00.000-08:00

Amphibian conservation in Bolivia is just in the beginning, almost nothing has been done. Even in some cases there is no information about the species, natural history, habitat requirements and reprod

uction among others. There are some cases

where amphibian species don’t have en

ough time because the different threats like habitat loss, pollution or recently the Chytrid fungus, a disease that is eliminating different population in several places in the world. One strategy that we are

developing besides the resear

ch, capacity building and environmental in-situ education is the captive breeding component, with this work we want to learn as much as possible about some endangered species of Bolivian amphibians mainly focused in the aquatic frogs of the genus Telmatobius which all their species are in the red list of endangered species of the IUCN.

Since a couple of years we are working with some species of Telmatobius that we captured in larvae stages and after keeping them in captivity now

we have several adult individuals that are already breeding and at this stage we have several tadpoles and some young frogs that are the first decedents in captivity.

After this step we are very enthusiastic and now we are going to try to work with other species and also try to breed the species that we have in captivity like Telmatobius culeus, now with our new facility that we are building that will allow us to have a better control of different aspects and now we think we will be able to breed this critically endangered species.

for more information about this:

http://www.amphibianark.org/Newsletters/pdf_newsletters/Amphibian%20Ark%20News%2012.pdf

The facility holding some species of Telmatobius

Observations and work with the frogs

Amphibian course in Tarija

2010-09-07T05:51:00.000-07:00

To work with other people, institutions and partners will help to save amphibians in Bolivia; it is very difficult to do the work alone. This is the reason that we are trying to train people in different areas of Bolivia.

teaching the park-guard to take chytrid samples

This time we organized an amphibian course in the distant department of Tarija where park-guards and some workers from conservation and education NGO were present in the course.

The course had a theoretical and practical part in the field

It was very interesting how they were very interested in all the information about the amphibians and during the fieldwork practice everybody was very curious to see and to know more closely those animals that normally they just know as a “slimy thing”. They even didn’t know that were endangered species. Now after this course was they learned basic aspects about amphibians, how to work with them and how to monitor we will start a monitoring program that will provide very important data about those populations.

teaching how to clean the equipment to avoid contamination

One important thing is that also they realized of the threat of the Chytrid fungus and they are going to try to monitor if this disease arrive to the area with our support, because they said “we want to have these frogs in or reserve, we want to protect them”

The week of the frog and the new exhibition

2010-06-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

One of our objectives in the project is to increase the awareness about amphibian situation at global and Bolivian level. For this reason we organized the amphibian exhibition in the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d’Orbigny, with information about amphibians, games and an exhibition with the species that we are working. Also we are setting up the captive breeding facility where we are working with the endangered species of frogs of the genus Telmatobius.

For this we prepared our exhibitions and the educational material and the terrariums and aquariums, for this we had the help of Dirk, with him we made an terrarium where we can show amphibians from rainforest this work took us a couple of weeks but the results were very good, we also worked with the aquarium to keep the Critically endangered Titicaca frog. With this exhibition we want to show people about amphibians that are very unknown in the public and also showing the work we are doing to protect those species.

During this week several school children visited the exhibition and got involved in the different activities related with amphibians like games, displays and talks. There were also some local communities that with the project visited the museum to see and learn about conservation and research that the museum and the project is developing so in this way we can have their support. It was very interesting that now those communities are more enthusiastic to participate in different ways to support the conservation of Bolivian amphibians at local level.

This exhibition will be open in the museum all the time and we also plan to develop an itinerant exhibition that can travel to different places of Bolivia, so the people can realize more about amphibians and the high diversity that Bolivia holds and about the work of the project and other researchers.

Diving in Titicaca Lake

2010-06-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

Now we went back to Titicaca Lake to our localities, but this time we went with our new diving equipment. This was a great experience, it was different than snorkel, of course more difficult with all the weight of the equipment and the altitude, but once in the water it was amazing, the very clear water allowed us to see more deeper and different habitats in the area. We found several individuals of Titicaca frog and not just adults, also tadpoles and juveniles; it was very interesting to see the patterns of habitat use and to study more closely the species and also behavior that previously was difficult to see.
We also had the contact with the Bolivian Army (Centro de Instruccion de Buceo en Altura CIBA) that supported us with some weight and air that we used for our thanks. After a meeting they showed the support for the project and they are interested to work in the future in the monitoring and education activities in the lake.
In this occasion we did not find many dead frogs, we don’t know yet the reason but also the numbers of individual that we found are different, possible because the different season that we are working now and possible the species are moving to different areas of the lake. This information will be obtained in the following diving work.

Teaching a local guy to use a digital camera that will be used by him to take pictures and data of the frogs that they are catching every day, thanks to a donnor.

An interesting and very enthusiastic group of young guides

2010-06-03T14:09:00.000-07:00

After our return we went back to the field, this time we worked with a team of touristic guides in the border of Carrasco National Park. It was amazing how this group is working and specially one of them, German that by himself is taking pictures of the animals and plants of the area and just with a small camera taking really interesting and beautiful photos. We went to this area because we want to support this group and we were working for some days teaching them about amphibians and the working with them.

For this time we were with a Biologist a Belgium friend, Dirk that was helping us with the fieldwork and also with photography. Now after this trip we are planning with German to develop a fieldguide of the amphibians of the area.

In a second opportunity weeks later we had the opportunity to go back again to still taking some other pictures of other species, this time with German and our friend Jelena that supported us in fieldwork. This time we obtained some other pictures and data for the fieldguide and the project.

Due the interest of them in amphibians we want to develop a training workshop in this area with other biology students and parkguards of different protected areas of Bolivia, because we want to start one area of monitoring amphibians in this region and the people here are very interested to support this initiative.

The species that we found in this area are very interesting because it is a conjunction of Andean and Amazonian species in the same area; we also found some endangered species that are interesting to monitor. So we think that in the near future we will be working very closely with this group of very enthusiastic people for the conservation of the Bolivian amphibians.

Finding new partners and support

2010-06-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

This time there were several new things, we had the opportunity to have some talks and presentations in different groups and institutions in Europe and we showed our work in amphibian conservation in Bolivia. It was very good because we had several new contacts that are interested to do research and conservation in Bolivia. This is a great opportunity because there are very few studies and work in amphibian conservation in Bolivia. Possibly the following months and years there will be some researchers and people that will come to Bolivia to do some work.

Also there are some conservation institutions that in some way want to support our work and we really thanks this help that will allow us to develop in better way the activities.

We want to thank different people that is supporting this project Anton Christiaens, Petra Sigrist Family Plaetinck, Raoul Van Damme, Kennet Lundin and Dirk Ercken, and special thanks to Natuurpunt Gent, The Gothenburg Museum of Natural History, Nordens Ark for the support and the time during our visit and also for all the information they provided us.

good news and bad news

2009-12-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

Our last time in Titicaca lake we went with Patricia and Teresa our two herpetologist colleagues that were a great support for our work and they enjoyed the snorkel in the lake looking for the Titicaca lake frog Telmatobius culeus. Unfortunately this time our team from the local community could not join us in the snorkel but they were always supporting us from the boat next to us.
This time we did several diurnal and nocturnal transects, good news and bad news…

First day in one diurnal transect we found several individuals in the lake, and some of them in amplexus, that means that they are breeding this season, unfortunately we could not find the eggs, probably we need to look for more carefully. During the night was very cold but also very interesting because we found several individuals and a big female that was the biggest one that I saw until now. Also we found very interesting data that we will publish soon in some scientific papers.

The second day it was amazing one day with several impressions, first the unbelievable landscape and underwater view, but followed by alarming findings that pushed down our happiness. Our first individual we found in that transect was a juvenile, after some pictures we realized that was dead in the bottom of the lake, we collected this one, second individual, also a dead one, but this time bigger, third one also a big dead frog almost decomposed. After about 50 minutes we found 18 dead frogs of different size, decomposing states and just four frogs that were ok, some of our last individuals that we found I thought it was a dead individual because like you can see in the picture the left leg it was with a very big open wound where you can see the bone of the toes. We collected this individual and it seems that is not a mechanical wound seems to be something that is eating the skin and flesh from outside, we also found a lot of leeches in the body that we took out, we wanted to take alive this individual but unfortunately this individual died.

That night we had a lot of rain and we went out to record the frogs calling and we obtained some good recordings that soon will be published and also we found some other species of frogs on the land that we took chytrid samples to see what is happening in this area. Next day the water it was very cold and also with no too much visibility and it was no possible to carry out our transects, so we dedicated this day to teach our new members of the team how to snorkel and to develop the transects.
After those days in the lake, now we come back to the city with a lot questions and worried about the situation, because we never saw that number of dead animals, maximum we found before were 5, but also can be that now we are using a different method or just it is the decomposition time in the area is very long, but also if this is the situation, to find to many individuals like we found means that something is happening there, what it is?? We don’t know yet, we don't want to give answers yet, but we need to do more research and for that we will need more support from people and institutions, we are very enthusiastic because more people are in our team and with Patricia and Teresa working with us is a big difference that will improve the work.

We also hope that soon we will publish our findings that can be available to more people and we will keep updating this blog and soon the new website of the project.

I would like to thank all of you people that are emailing me and giving some words of support, this really help us to keep working in this project even that we know that is a very hard work.
Also the big support from the local community that always is supporting us and now we are planning several things with them to protect the species and also to give them and option to improve their live quality protecting the species.
Thank you very much.

Our adventure in Ayopaya

2009-12-05T11:43:00.001-08:00

This time we went to an unknown area of the department of Cochabamba, Ayopaya province, an area that was not explored yet, especially amphibians and reptiles. We went to the dry valleys and Puna with some patches of cloud forest. Although we did not find many amphibians, we found interesting aspects. The forest structure of the area is very interesting because you can find in one slope a mountain cloud forest and in the other slope in the same valley an interandean dry forest; this situation can be reflected in a composition of animals that belongs to a completely different ecosystem groups. Unfortunately we could not find many species of frogs due to the rainy season that did not start yet, a very important factor in this kind of dry forest.

here we can see the mountain dry valleys of the area

Our trip was an adventure, due to the bad maintenance of the roads, first we found some problems on the road, some very slippery and muddy areas where we had to push the car and some others that we had to go out from the car to see if we had enough space for a car. We were traveling with our colleagues researchers that are working with triatomine insects that are responsible of chagas disease, also with the nocturnal butterflies of the group saturnidae and botanists. Once in the area we worked in different locations and with the instructions of the villagers we got lost more than once trying to find some places. The structure of the amphibian fauna was very similar to the dry valleys of Cochabamba, Chuquisaca and Tarija, but we think that in the wet side can be very interesting to work, but unfortunately we could not arrive.

An interesting thing that we found was that the area is dedicated to mining of different resources. We saw a gold mining company, very close to a conjunction of two streams, one from the mines and other without intervention. At first impression the difference was completely clear. One completely transparent and the other completely dirty and when those streams got together downriver we could not find any invertebrate or vertebrate aquatic life. The villagers told us that the mine company takes the rocks to the city and they work there with that. But could be interesting to see if this really happen because the pollution in the area it was very strong and maybe they are just discarding the chemicals in the stream and some of those chemicals can be mercury, a heavy metal that can be lethal for the wildlife and human populations that live downriver.

After the work in the area we gave some talks about the groups that we were working with and we explained the school kids about amphibians, conservation and the importance of amphibians for the ecosystem and for them.

Going back to the city it was another adventure because we found that the road was blocked by landslides so we had to go back and to take the long way that was not so nice to drive there, very narrow roads and with the first rains and foggy weather we had to drive very slowly and finally our brakes did not work and we had to drive about 130 km very slowly in a very strong rain.
After all this adventure now we are very excited to try to go back to the area and to work in the mountain cloud forest that we saw from the distance, now we need to organize maybe an long term expedition to see what kind of herpetofauna we can find.

frog meat and intelligence potion

2009-11-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of days after our last update in the blog we had news about Telmatobius. We received a call from our colleague herpetologist telling us that somebody was selling frogs in the local market here in Cochabamba city, that the species was Telmatobius culeus a critically endangered species (http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/57334/0).
It is amazing how easy is to have this kind of situations where a critically endangered species that have to be protected now you can find in a local market and buy alive or dead like medicine or that can help you with you capacity to learn….

This man told that he is from Peru and if we want more frogs we can ask him (gave us the cell phone) and he can provide us the size we want and the species we want because he knows some other places with frogs in Peru… the interesting thing is that in our study area the local community told us that Peruvians go to those communities and buy the frogs for just a couple of bolivianos (local money) and they take entire buckets, sometimes full with frogs.

It is important to try stop this situation before they expand this, because it is not a traditional use of the species, this use it was recently introduced in the country and now it is in Cochabamba city, about at least 12 hours from Titicaca lake, so it is not a occasional activity like it says in this article http://www.la-razon.com/Versiones/20090705_006779/nota_277_839363.htm .
Now we have another thing to be aware and also we need to start working closely with the government, local authorities and media to try to protect the species. (we want to thank Oliver Quinteros that provided the pictures)

Hope for the frogs

2009-11-06T02:43:00.000-08:00

Bolivian herpetologist at the X congreso Argentino de Herpetologia

Recently a lot of new things happened, first we went to X Congreso Argentino de Herpetologia in Jujuy Argentina, and we presented our 2 works, one the Bolivian Amphibian Initiative and the second our captive breeding project. Also we found the same pattern that in Bolivia that several populations of Telmatobius in Argentina are not present anymore. A bad new, now the Cytrid fungus is almost in all the Bolivian Andes and now we need to do more research to see what is really happening with the species present in the area, because nothing is known about the impact that is having this phenomena.

After the meeting in Argentina we had several new contacts and now there are people and institutions that want to support the initiative and to try to act now to save the high Andean species of frogs, specially the Telmatobius genus. We really hope to obtain good results and that more conservationist can join to this work taking out the personal interests and to work for the Bolivian frogs.

Field work in Tarija, looking for amphibians, water quality testing and desinfecting equipment

After the meeting in Argentina we came back to Bolivia and did some fieldwork in Tarija Department; with the support of the SERNAP and the parkguards of the protected area we went back to some localities to try to find some populations of Telmatobius that we found in 2000, 2001 and 2004. It was great, because we worked closelly with the parkguards in the field work teaching them about the amphibian situation and also about amphibian work. We found the species in several water bodies and several of them; the only strange thing was that we found just tadpoles, just in one stream we found adults. We don’t know exactly the reasons for that, but the tadpoles we found looks like in good conditions and with the vocal structures complete that means possibly that the fungus is not present yet in the area.

Sharing information and education workshops in local communities

We decided to take some of them to our captive facilities to try to breed the species and now we have some tadpoles that can help the species just in case the fungus arrives to the area that is just time to wait for that. Now that the fungus is almost everywhere we need to be careful in our fieldwork with biosecurity procedures, that almost nothing or nobody is doing anything.

High Andean Bolivian frogs are under a presure and specially these last years, a lot of things are needed to protect them, but there is also hope and now after the new events when more people and institutions are interested to work with the conservation of the species and try to save them. We just hope all this will go for a good way because here are the frogs in between.

a tadpole of our fieldwork that is going frog

Declining populations???

2009-10-29T06:11:00.000-07:00

This time we went to the mountain cloud forest of Cochabamba department, one in the new road Cochabamba Santa Cruz and another near the ruins of Incallajta that once was one of the largest forts in Bolivia. we focused our work looking for aquatic species of the genus Telmatobius, unfortunately in both places we did not find any individual or tadpole; where previously the species Telmatobius yuracare, Telmatobius hintoni and Telmatobius espadai were very abundant, now there are no frogs... we just found individuals of other species that are not too associated to water like Gastrotheca, Pristimantis Psychrophynella and Hypsiboas. Some of them very abundant like Psychrophynella that was calling during almost all the day and everywhere.

It is very worrying that we are finding a pattern not just in those places also in other places we went like in Chuquisaca department and Potosi, were previous places with big populations of amphibians of the genus Telmatobius, but now those species are not anymore present. We also are finding some places like in the dry valleys of Cochabamba were T. hintoni was very common, now we are finding just some tadpoles and very few adults. This situation can be a temporal fluctuation but also can be a possible declining of these populations that in some cases the species are restricted just a small areas or even just some streams or rivers, and if those populations disappear, all the species is extinct. We sincerely hope that is just a fluctuation of the population size, but we are finding some indications that something else is happening and also with the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (BD) recently reported in Bolivia, we think that we need to act now if we don't want to lose those species.

We also are working with captive breeding of some species that are common that we are using like model species and we are finding very interesting data and we were able to reproduce the species until tadpoles, now we are including our work to other species and at the moment we are learning lot things from that. Our plan is to start in a near future with other species that need the help and that are under a high risk to disappear, we hope that we will find some other solutions and work closely with the local communities like we are doing now to reduce the other threats, but unfortunately for now there is nothing we can do against the BD just to take out some individuals from the wild and to start ex-situ programs. We think it is very important to start to show the conservationists and the government the emergency to act now in the conservation of this group of vertebrates that more than one third of the species are threatened and under risk of disappear.

Titicaca Frog problems

2009-09-20T10:26:00.001-07:00

For second and third time we went to Titicaca Lake to monitor the species. This time we took some help. Ineke and Mariana that were a great support during the field and helping us in the fieldwork. with these trips we learned a lot about the best ways to study and monitor Telmatobius, also we found great new information about the species during our day and nigth transects.

At the same time we are finding very alarming information about the situation of the species and the area. we found again dead individuals in the area, several sick frogs and a deformed frog with extra limbs. at the moment we are trying to understand what is happening with the species doing some research and postmortem analyzis with the dead individuals. we found a lot ecto and endoparasites that probably have an effect in the very skiny individuals. also we are finding new information about polution in the area that together with other factors can be affecting the population health.

But not everything is lost, now we have new help from the local people and now Nelson our new integrant of the team is learning to to snorkel and is helping us to monitor the frogs in the area, this very enthusiastic young new member is helping us to work in the area and also his family that is providing a lot data in the area.

in one of our nocturnal transects snorkeling in the lake (very very cold) we found amazing information about the natural history that will be published in a near future. after just a couple of times working snorkeling in the lake we are finding a lot data that can help us to understand this amazing and critically endangered frog.

Our first snorkel in the lake

2009-04-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

We went to Titicaca Lake to test the new wetsuit for the monitoring program of the populations of the Titicaca Water Frog Telamtobius culeus, we worked with the local community that supported us in the lake with the boat and the time they worked with us. The temperature of the water was good, not too cold and the underwater view was amazing, probably could be a very interesting way to work with one kind of tourism in the lake (snorkeling in the lake to see the Titicaca Water Frog). this kind of activities can help the local communities to have a extra income and at the same time can help to protect this critically endangered species of frog.This day we had two times in the lake, the first one in the morning about 3 hours when the weather was very calm and sunny that was ideal to snorkel with the company of don Hilario, after a couple of minutes we were able to see some species of fish, and also among the vegetation we found the aquatic frog resting in the bottom of the lake at about 1 meter deep, those frogs were very well camouflaged with the substrate and some of them with the vegetation. We found in this time several individuals of frogs and fortunately not like before, this time we did not find dead animals, all the individuals we found this time were in very good conditions. We want to thanks Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, rufford Small Grants, Kennet Lundin and Gerardo Garcia for the support in some of the equipment used in this project and teir support to develope this conservation initiative.
Following I show you some of the pictures of this amazing adventure:

Testing how deep can we go in the lake

Catching one frog among the vegetation

The frog man in the lake

In the afternoon we went with more people to snorkel in the lake, most of them kids and with Gustavo, our local partner that is taking data about the frogs that are captured in the fish nets everyday. Soon he will join us to monitor the population of this frog with the wetsuits. At this time in the afternoon we had not so good weather and the light was not so good to find the frogs but it was very interesting too. We found some other things like different species of fish and also our friends the leeches that we thought was not easy to find one, but this one found us he he. After the exploration in the lake we showed the species we found to the kids and they were very exited about all this new information, and just to see somebody swimming in this very cold water was exiting for them

kids learning about the Titicaca water frog

leeches in the lake that want to go with us

sunset in the lake

About the project

2009-03-28T16:46:00.000-07:00

Bolivia is a mega-diverse country holding a large percentage of the world’s biodiversity. This richness contrasts with the poor knowledge of its biodiversity and lack of economical resources.

Bolivia holds more than 250 amphibian species, more than 45 of these species are endemic, many have restricted ranges and c. 35 are threatened. Additionally, many species are ‘data deficient’ as we know little regarding range, ecology and populations sizes. Recent work has highlighted priority areas for amphibian conservation, such as the Andean slopes. But gap analysis has shown that there are a number of areas (e.g. the Yungas forests and Dry Valleys) with tremendous richness and endemism which hold habitats that are severely threatened and very poorly known regarding amphibians.

Also, more worryingly, a number of sites (even within protected areas) require immediate conservation action. Therefore the work outlined in this proposal agrees with the current priorities of the Bolivian conservation and scientific community for amphibians; namely increased knowledge for certain areas, sites and species in tandem with community activities to reduce habitat loss at high priority sites.

The amphibian decline has been acknowledged as a global conservation priority. Several countries have implemented amphibian conservation schemes, but Bolivia has no such strategy. This project combines three main components:

1. Amphibian surveys: We are providing information on range, ecological requirements and abundance for a number of data deficient, restricted range and threatened species. This data is absolutely crucial to allow the Bolivian conservation community to assess the current threatened status, develop and initiate realistic conservation measures like future captive breeding programs.

2. Training: Park-guards, members of local communities and students in amphibian survey techniques. This will increase the data collected during surveys and provide interested and receptive individuals from communities and protected areas that will support the development of future monitoring, conservation education initiatives.

3. Conservation education: We are developing conservation education workshops aimed at communities where severe habitat loss/degradation is occurring and which contain important populations of amphibians of conservation concern. We also will carry out in the museum activities where the importance of amphibians will be shown.

4. We are working in a pilot amphibian captive breeding component, and in a future protect them from extinction, and also for education purposes.

Telmatobius hintoni a couple in amplexus

This is one of the critically endangered species that we are working with, following we will share with you the work we are developing to understand and protect this species

Telmatobius culeus a critically endangered species in Bolivia

Some of the sites where we are working with the project