[Rain_Frog]

I have a question for all you advanced anuran keepers. I recently read an article about a previously believed to be extinct population of Atelopus varius was discovered in Costa Rica. Rob Giglarido (that's probably mispelled) of Atlanta Botanical Gardens is supposedly trying to breed them and release them back into the wild.

How many Atelopus and Dendrobates are believed to be extinct at the moment? I heard a LOT of Atelopus may have become extinct in the last decade. How is the conservation of D. mysteriosus these days? I believe Mr. Stewart is planning to be importing them for captive breeding.

rain_frog

As of now,
2 xenopus laevis
2 bombina orientalis
1 Dendrobates tinctorius "Surinam cobalt"
2 parakeets, 1 cockatiel, guppies, and 1 goldfish
Nearly 30 different species, subspecies, morphs, and hybrids of rare carnivorous plants

 

[Guest]

As far as I know Ron has A.spumarius not A.varius.
Talking with him and Justin Yeager at IAD, it sounds like the Costa Rican goverment and the land owners are now dealing with the Varius issue.
I am not sure how many Dendrobates are extinct, but the Atelopus are going fast! And the Peru shippment (this includes D.mysteriosus) is in the same spot, still waiting for the paperwork. I believe it has been this way for close to 2 years.

Hope that helps,

 

[Guest]

D.Speciosus is supposedly gone I saw 1 of these on my first trip I took awhile back with Scott to the NAIB they had one in their back room nice frog shame its gone.

I also have this page in my book marks
http://www.geocities.com/craspedopus/extinct_frogs.html

And to recap on what Ben said Ron is not breeding the various their he is trying to setup a conservation program for them.
Brian

 

[Guest]

extinct Atelopus

RF,

No one who does the feild work wants to say that there is no chance any of these frogs will ever show up again. Just like the population of A. varius that Justin located in Cista Rica there may still be some isolated populations still holding on. But all of the highland Atelopus species are in desperate shape. A couple weeks ago I got word that A. carbonernsis that was very plentiful in Equador four years ago has not been seen in two years. One of Luis Coloma's students has spent much of the past two years looking for them with no luck. He does not want to say thta they are extinct. He wants to find them, but...

The list of missing Atelopus include:
A. carbonerensis
A. boulengeri
A. limosus
A. flavescens
A. glyphus
A. mindoensis
A. peruensis
A. certus
A. lynchi

A. Ignescens (these jambados were so plentiful in the Equadorian parma 10 years ago you couldn't walk along the edge of a stream bed with out stepping on several of them)


A. varius (even though Justin, Ron and crew have found an issolted population they are still in marginal shape at best)

Dendrobatid frogs have not suffered as much loss as the Atelopus group. One observation is that the highland stream dwelling species are the most devistated. And most of the Dendrobates are not highland stream breeders. Although a number of Colostethus group are stream dwellers and are suffering some significant losses I do not have good information on them.

The most difficulties that the Dendrobatid frogs are suffering is habitat loss.

 

[Guest]

I just signed up on the forum today, so I wasn't able to jump in on this earlier. As far as other Dendrobates, there have not been solid sightings of D. arboreus nor D. speciosus for some time. Federico Bolanos and I spoke about them for some time, but no one was quite sure. I'm sure there are many others in South America that haven't been discovered. The Atelopus varius was/is a great second chance for now, but we will see how things work out with it. At this point, it could be a great disappointment. Ron Gagliardo, Brian Kubicki, Robert Putschendof (I really hope I spelled Robert's last name right...), Federico Bolanos, and many others have been working hard to try to make it a success story, and I thank they very much for what they've done and taught me with this.

For anyone who hasn't seen yet, there are a few A. varius pictures on my site. Also, it's important to note that Mark Pepper and Lauren Pipe were also there for the preliminary identification-- Lauren wasn't as much there to help identify (as we were dragging her from the beach that day... ).

http://www.yeagersfrogs.com

 

[4thecrue]

Justin,

Glad to see your posting here. Hopefully your experiences can be an asset to everyone here.

Damon

 

[Guest]

not to add any technical opinion here, but it's hard to belive that a species can be assumed to be extinct when they live in a dense rain forest. I have a hard time finding my 2 tincts in my 20 gallon terrarium, i cant imagine trying to find smaller frogs in 200 acres of dense vegitation. Thinking from the frog mentality, if people were trying to find me, i wouldn't stick around for portraits!

 

[Guest]

Normally finding many frogs (Eleuthrodactylids, Dendrobatids, etc) you can tramp around as you walk pushing the leaf litter to make them jump out. Since I have large feet, I guess I get a little luckier from time to time... But seriously, you can even go by calls with D. pumilio and D. granuliferus to find them. We found out that you can still hear both species with the car running while driving on back roads, even with some quiet music playing. Now I must admit sometimes you hear what you want to hear-- and we did have a few false alarms on hearing a call. But generally if you know what a frog needs to live there, you will soon find patterns in places you find them, and this helps you pick areas that look like they would be good habitats for them to be in. Interestingly enough with Atelopus, they don't jump when you're flopping around. Several of us were climbing this small ledge falling over each other (and hitting a burn-hazle relative yelping from that) right next to a juvenile-- it never once moved away despite all the commotion. This makes them harder to find since they're not hopping around, but it makes photography easier... you have your trade-offs. The Atelopus and D. granuliferus both also spend the dry season very near streams, so that also helps you look in those times.
J