Last-minute rescue mission to save endangered frogs in Chile - Earth Touch News

-

When herpetologist Andrés Charrier journeyed with some colleagues to a stream outside the city of Calama in northern Chile about six weeks ago, he was hoping to find the creek bustling with hopping inhabitants. The snaking waterway in the heart of the Atacama Desert is the world’s only known refuge for Loa water frogs (Telmatobius dankoi), a critically endangered species that Charrier and long-time collaborator Gabriel Lobos have been studying since 2013. But when the team arrived, they found the creek almost completely dry.

Loa-water-frog-in-tank_2019-08-22.jpg
Charrier was hoping to show his colleagues a critically endangered Loa water frog (like the one pictured). Instead they were met with the site of an almost-dry creek. © National Zoo of Chile

“It was like a bomb went off in front of my eyes,” Charrier told Global Wildlife Conservation. “The grasses were dry and brown and we didn’t even find the carcasses of frogs, which means that it had been dry for a very, very long time … I have been working in conservation for the last 10 years with frogs and I never expected to see something like this. Never. Never.”

Charrier returned to the stream three days later with a small team on a mission to figure out what happened to the frogs and their watery abode. They had no expectations of finding live amphibians, but just 100 metres from where Charrier and his colleagues had turned back a few days before, they found a muddy pool: the last waning stretch of hope for the species. A dozen or so malnourished Loa water frogs were clinging to life in the murky water.

Loa-water-frogs-in-muddy-pool_2019-08-22.jpg
The remaining Loa frogs huddled in a shallow pool. Image © Gabriel Lobos

Their discovery triggered a rapid rescue mission. The National Zoo of Chile offered to house and nurse the frogs while Amphibian Survival Alliance and Amphibian Ark provided financial support. A short while later, Charrier and Lobos returned to the the field along with Claudio Soto Azat, co-chair of the IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, in search of survivors. They brought back 14 frogs which were weighed, sexed and examined for lesions before being placed in pairs and housed in tanks with visual barriers to reduce stress.

Searching-for-Loa-water-frogs_2019-08-22.jpg
Andrés Charrier and Claudio Soto Azat search for amphibian survivors near the city of Calama. Image © The Ministry of Housing and Urbanism of Chile
Loa-water-frog-comparison_2019-08-22.jpg
A healthy Loa water frog in 2015 (left), compared to a malnourished one (right) rescued this month from its dried-up habitat in Chile. (Left photo by Claudio Soto Azat. Right photo by the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism of Chile)

“I have been deeply impressed by the skill and resolve of the team in Chile acting to prevent the extinction of this species,” said Helen Meredith, executive director of the Amphibian Survival Alliance, in a press release. “So many critically endangered amphibian species risk slipping away unnoticed because they do not have an active group of people committed to their survival. This gives me great hope for the Loa water frogs – they face an uncertain future but have a group of champions committed to their survival.”

Loa-water-frogs-national-zoo-chile_2019-08-22.jpg
The rescued frogs are given limited visibility to help reduce stress as they adjust to their new home. Image © National Zoo of Chile

The task of saving the species is far from over, however. While the National Zoo of Chile has housed and bred a number of frog species over the years, this is the first time they have dealt with Loa water frogs. “I have experience with many species of amphibians, but this is the most difficult case I’ve ever had,” Osvaldo Cabeza, supervisor of herpetology at the National Zoo of Chile told Global Wildlife Conservation. “But every day that passes, I feel that this species is telling us its secrets and how we can contribute to their wellbeing. Seeing the frogs’ slow recovery is really exciting – it fills my heart to see how they’re gaining weight and that their health is improving.”

Nursing the frogs back to health is only one step in the process. Water is a scarce resource in the desert town of Calama, but that hasn’t stopped mining operations, farmers and real estate developers from exploiting it. Conservationists are calling on the Chilean government to prohibit illegal water extraction and to restore the frogs’ habitat and declare it a formally protected sanctuary.

“Although this is a critically important rescue, it is the first part in a multi-pronged process,” explains Ariadne Angulo, co-chair of the IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. “To achieve our shared vision of ‘amphibians thriving in nature,’ there must be nature to return amphibians to, and the Loa water frog is no exception.”

The Andean highlands in South America are home to at least 63 species of water frogs in the Telmatobius genus. Many, like the recently rescued amphibians, live in just one place and, as such, require that their habitat be carefully regulated and protected. Loa water frogs are very sensitive to changes in their environment – zoo staff tasked with looking after the recent survivors can attest to the trickiness of maintaining the water at the optimal pH level to keep the frogs happy and healthy. Habitat destruction, pollution and invasive species can be deadly to the hyper sensitive frogs.

“When people tell me that I’m a hero because I save frogs, I tell them ‘no, the frogs are the heroes for holding on,’” Charrier says. “My actions are my message to the world: these species are dying and we can and we must do something about it.”

Header image: The Ministry of Housing and Urbanism of Chile



https://ift.tt/2ZmXLtp

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All In The Family: Maine Mother & Son Charged in Massive Drug Bust

-
Image
corso dog :: Article Creator Woman Hospitalized After Attack By 2 Dogs At Same Edmonton Home Where Boy Died: Lawyer UPDATE: On April 15, 2024, the City of Edmonton provided an update on the fatal attack. It said that prior to the deadly incident on April 1, "the city had no lawful basis to remove the dogs from the home." The city added that "all prior complaints about the dogs involved in this incident were investigated thoroughly and appropriate action was taken in accordance with the applicable legislation." The city also said a review found that its staff "acted appropriately in accordance with our standard practices and in compliance with the relevant legal constraints given the nature of past complaints and reports." A woman was hospitalized after being attacked in February by two large Cane Corso dogs at the same home where an 11-year-old boy was killed last week, the woman's lawyer told Global News. "I...
Read more

Rare Frogs And Illegal Drugs - Palisades Hudson Financial Group

-
Image
Colombian conservationist Ivan Lozano has hit on a brilliantly promising strategy to protect his country’s rare and endangered amphibians. His plan: Flood the market with them. Lozano is not hunting rare frogs in Colombia’s Andean forests. He is raising them himself and selling them at prices designed to undercut poachers and smugglers. If he can raise the frogs cheaply enough, and in large enough numbers, he might manage to drive down the market price to the point that poachers no longer find it worthwhile to harvest and smuggle the creatures onto the black markets. Lozano told The Associated Press that his company also encourages collectors to breed their own frogs. Picture yourself as a poacher. If the government toughens the legal penalties and steps up enforcement, you will shrug your shoulders; legal risks are a basic cost of doing business. Since the demand for your product already exists among foreign collectors and other buyers, tougher enforcement merely reduces supply a...
Read more

Burn scars, winter storms threaten rare and endangered species in San Gabriel Mountains - The Bakersfield Californian

-
Image
LOS ANGELES — Up until a few weeks ago, the West Fork of the San Gabriel River was one of the most abundant wildlife habitats in Los Angeles County, a secluded and rugged area defined by its steep peaks, lush canyons and mixture of rare and endangered species. Recently however, a team of federal biologists and forest rangers was aghast when it visited the stream following the Bobcat fire, which has burned more than 115,000 acres in the heart of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Terrain that once resembled a High Sierra granite gorge now looked like ground zero after a nuclear explosion, and the usually clean mountain air was sharp with the stench of smoke. Particularly unsettling were the bare and ashen slopes that were now primed to dissolve under pounding winter storms. A heavy mudslide, experts said, could reverse decades of conservation efforts by inundating the last outposts for such federally protected species as the Santa Ana sucker fish and Southern California m...
Read more