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.

Titicaca Frog problems

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

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

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