Working together for the conservation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.