Amphibian course in Tarija

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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???

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.