By Teresa Camacho-Badani, Alcide d’Orbigny Natural History Museum.
The genus Telmatobius is one of the most threatened in the Neotropical region. According to the IUCN Red List, 86% of the species are found to be threatened in various degrees. In Bolivia, of the 15 species reported, all are threatened and 4 are possibly extinct.
The Alcide d’Orbigny Natural History Museum, located in the City of Cochabamba, has been working on the conservation of amphibians in Bolivia for more than 13 years. Eight years ago, it started a pilot program for the ex situ management for the Telmatobius genus. It has recently been expanded, and has been recognized by the Bolivian Ministry of the Environment as an official Custody Center of Wild Fauna, called “Centro K’ayra”. This center is dedicated to the investigation of threatened amphibians, and has approximately 500 frogs of five Andean species of the genus Telmatobius in its ex situ program. This captive breeding program that has most species of this group in the world.
Among the Water Frogs under custody and care of the K’ayra Center, is the Critically Endangered Sehuencas Water Frog (Telmatobius yuracare) for which an Action Plan has been created that includes field monitoring, communication and strengthening the ex situ program for this species.
After 10 years of not having found this species in nature, a population was found in the cloud forests of Bolivia. Some of the individuals from this population were taken into the ex situ program. These frogs will be part of the breeding stock to reproduce the species in the hopes that one day they can be released into their natural habitat. To accomplish this task, the captive breeding area has been expanded to provide a space for all the species-specific requirements.
The new facility for the Sehuencas Water Frogs is a 10m long by 4m wide container. This one is the third at the K’ayra Center and has been modified to accommodate 44 aquariums for the reproduction and care of these amphibians. It has an conditioning air system which can maintain the same temperature as found in their habitat, which in winter can reach 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), It also provides the necessary biosecurity and animal welfare protocols to ensure the successful care of this species, as well as other species of the Bolivian cloud forests that in the future may need to be part of an ex situ program for their conservation.
The implementation of this new facility is part of the “Sehuencas Water Frog Action Plan” which is being executed thanks to the widely sup- port of ASA partner Global Wildlife Conservation.
In addition, during the last few years, the K´ayra Center has received the financial support of Kansas City Zoo, Aquazoo Löbbecke Museum, Amphibian Ark and Chester Zoo.