Rare, Endangered Toads Flown Back to Native Habitat
http://www.livescience.com/animals/rare-endangered-amphibian-flown-to-tanzania-100818.html
http://www.livescience.com/animals/rare-endangered-amphibian-flown-to-tanzania-100818.html
Rare, Endangered Toads Flown Back to Native Habitat
- Thread starter Vicious_Fish
- Start date
One of my best friends does all the water purification and filtration for the Bronx zoo. He was in the newspaper when they were trying to breed these amphibians for the work he has done there. its pretty cool stuff
Just a few thoughs: first I think its absolutley great that this small toads are going back home, however I do have to say that zoos are once again doing the all eggs in the same basket mistake. This toads as of now only exist in a handfull of places, they are small and relatively easy to keep, why not put surpplus ones in private hands and let them enter the pet trade? And then you will see if they come near extinction again. Actually I think all rare anfibians should be widely established in captivity, both in private and public hands, that is the only way to ensure their continual survival. If for some reason a breeding program fails, a new desiase comes, etc, there will be allways back up colonies to make for it. For some it may take a big wille to come back into the wild but in the mean time they would be safe, triving and also helping us by providing a huge variety of potential terapeutic drugs. We deseperatly need this litle animals, we can not afford to loose any more anphibian species. Ive herd that the golden toad of Costa Rica was in a way "protected untill extinction" because absolutley no recolection of specimens was allowed. Lets hope that human selfishness and preconseptions dont interfere with more species survival odds. I suposse very few people would be prepared to take the chances at keeping and breeding the Costa Rica golden toads, however we can still wonder what could have happened IF a few of this animals by a huge amount of luck have ended up in the rigth hands. I know people in Europe have craked the secrets of Atelopus sp keeping and breeding, and these are VERY hard toads to keep, very few week ends to enjoy with these guys in a house. One can only wonder if the same wouldnt be possible with other already extinct anphibs.
I don't think the pet trade idea is pretty feasible. Apart from a bunch of really really enthusiastic people who actually care and give their darn best to their herps, the rest are just either people who are herping to earn large amounts of money or keeping reptiles for the hype of it. Unless the critically endangered frog species get into genuine hobby hands, if not, they are just a waste and free kill when entering the pet trade, especially when arriving a reputable vendors.
Golden toads? They are still alive in captivity though. But going at a price of 100k. Supposedly what I hear from my vendor, but entirely no backup evidence apart from his word.
Golden toads? They are still alive in captivity though. But going at a price of 100k. Supposedly what I hear from my vendor, but entirely no backup evidence apart from his word.