Donating Frogs???????

At my University (U of S) they have some really nice animal displays in the geology/ biology pavilion. They have five or six nicely planted salt and freshwater aquariums, a squirl exhibit, bearded dragon exhibit, koi pond, and a small bird avery. Now I'm not even close to breeding nor do I have an extensive collection of darts, but I am definitely getting a pair of Azureus sooner than later and one day will breed them. I have years left on my degree so I have plenty of time. Ron feel free to chime in here. My question is has anyone donated frogs to institutes like this (schools, zoos, anywhere public)? If so how hard was it to convince them to keep the frogs? Did you have to prepare a presentation? Any info would be appreciated. I would love to be in a position one day to be able to donate a group for public viewing. I also think that these rare frogs ( rare to the general public because lets face it a huge percentage of our Canadian population doesn't even know these things exist) would generate a positive feedback for our school and who knows maybe it could spark a breeding program at the University. It's kind of like starting at the bottom of the frog hobby and working towards a goal.

[tarbo96]

I would think it would be fairly easy to accomplish. As a matter of fact I work at a middle school in Florida and would accept donations myself. But really Selby Gardens down here starting a display after a local collector got them started. It is a wonderful way to present PDF's to the world. The students get really excited to see such amazing creatures.

Bill

[Mantellaprince20]

I guess it will really depend on the school you are at. I am at a university, and they let me set up one of their big tanks as a vivarium, then I put my frogs in it. I mostly donated my time to set the thing up, and they gave me money to buy some supplies. The main thing you ahve to do is talk to whoever is in charge of the area with the enclosures. Someone has to be above them all, making sure they get fed, and what not. We have a lab manager, and she is who I went to. I wouldn't recommend donating the frogs however, unless you know that someone there will be willing to take care of them. I am still culturing flies at home for this group of leucs I keep at school, and don't really trust anyone else to take care of them at the moment . Just finding the right person to talk to is the most important thing. Believe me though< I have gotten tons of responses to the viv and frogs being at the school. I have even helped a few people that were inspired by it to set up vivs, and helped get them frogs, so it definitely is a good way to get them out, and allows you to teach them the proper methods of getting frogs going

ed parker

[darkpilatus]

John,
I am not really sure what you are asking but it sounds like you are trying to get a University to start a DF collection or exhibit. Are you interested in building and maintaining it? Anyway as far as donations go when you are talking about zoos, museums and univ. that have collections, many species that fall into the "pet" class of animals (whatever that means) you will find that most specimens are infact donations. Typically from breeders and hobbiest like the members here. I am a animal keeper at a zoo and i have the pleasure of working in the quarantine department frequently so i know this to be true.
Now as far as taking care of these animals obviously a qualified individual should be doing and not some grounds keeper. Personally i wouldnt want a professor doing it either, they usually dont have the time to maintain such an exhibit, and unless they have experiance i wouldnt want the lab tech doing it. Now before I get yelled at I would like to say that unless a person has the time to give they arent really a good choice not that they arent qualified. If you are going to be putting the time i would go for it. I have been in the herpaculturist field for over 15 years now and i have found that sometimes Bio professors, field researchers and even zoo keepers arent the most noligable. Its usually the guy whos been doing out of his garage for years.
So if you are still paying attention I would like to say last that if you are willing to take it on, do it to the max. Put together a presentation if you are in school you have to do them anyway so it wont be to hard. The big thing is most institutions want to know a few things and dont really care about anything else, at least the penny pushers dont. 1:How much will it cost; start-up cost and annually? 2:How will they benefit from it? Put these things into a nice package with some examples of other places that might have done it and you are set, oh a little tip dont pay anything out of pocket... I learned that the hard way. Ok so I hope I answered maybe one question or helped a little.

Actually that last bit helped. Made me think about my future presentation a little bit more.