Amphibians

Amphibian Biology  What’s unique  Amphibia is Latin for “both lives”  These vertebrates live underwater and mature animals spend some time on land.  Live everywhere except salt water and Antarctica  Three types of amphibians,  Limbless = Caecillians  Tailed = Salamanders and Newts  Frogs includes toads

Limbless = Caecillian Southern Mexico Central America  Look like BIG worms, but have vertebrae  Lay eggs in water  Live in soft clay or sand  Not found in the USA

Tailed = Salamander and Newts  Head is very different from body  Hearing is bad, eyes are well developed  Have a tail throughout life  Some retain gills throughout life  Only leave shelter after nightfall or when it rains  Can be ovoviviparous – eggs hatch inside the body.

Fire Marbled Salamander Newt

Frogs and Toads Frogs and Toads  Toads are a type of frog  Head has limited range  Wide mouth with tiny teeth  Large eyes above head  Order Anura = no tail

Fancy Feet  Climb trees = sticky pads  White Lipped Tree Frog  Frogs of the Forest  Burrow = short and stubby  Plains Spadefoot Toad  Frogs of the desert  Swim = webbed toes  African Clawed Frog  Aquatic frogs  Fly = parachute-like webbing  Flying Frog  Frogs of the forest

Amazing Tongues and Ears  Some frogs have tongues that are long and sticky that can be used to catch bugs.  But toads have very short tongues and have to snap at their food using their mouth.  Some frogs make so much noise that they can be heard for miles! How do they keep from blowing out their own eardrums?  Some ears are connected to their lungs.

Frog Venn Diagram

 All amphibians lay a jelly like egg in water.  But not all amphibians go through metamorphosis. Frogs and toads do.  They can leave the water when they are adults.

Why are amphibians important? DDDDue to the extreme diversity of this class they are widely used in medical research SSSSuch as the dart frog being used to develop pain relief medication without associated human addictiveness and toxicity TTTThe African Clawed Frog being used to study super immunity SSSSpecies are becoming threatened before we even know they exist or have a chance to classify them.

 They eat lots of insects.  Lots of animals eat them.

Why are amphibians important?  Amphibians are good "indicators" of significant environmental changes that may go initially undetected by humans.  Skin is exposed to everything.

What’s happening to amphibians? 2005, data shows 122 species have gone extinct since 1980 and 1/3 of the world’s population or about 1,800 species are threatened with extinction. To date, 6,000 species have been classified.

But extinction is part of the cycle of life.  Paleontological base-rate for extinction is one out of every 100,000 species will go extinct every year.  This means that natural extinction of an amphibian species should occur every 1,000 years.  Amphibians are disappearing at a rate 3 times that of normal extinction

People have responded by  Protecting species  Protecting areas of land and water  Extinction in these national parks and reserves is still happening  This indicates an alarming degree of stress on the environment  Amphibians are indicators like the canary in the coalmine!

Why? The usual causes: HHHHabitat destruction WWWWater pollution AAAAir pollution IIIInvasive species CCCClimate change OOOOver-collection for food and pets PPPPesticides NNNNow joined by a parasitic fungal disease

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or chytrid fungus  First identified in Australia in 1993  Microscopic view of the fungus  Treatable in captivity with Chloramphenicol  Not able to treat in the wild  Chytrid in the epidermis of an amphibian

Where is chytrid found?  Disease is raging in California, the Rocky Mountains, Mexico, all of Central America, the Andes mountains and eastern Australia  Spreads by frog to frog contact and by spores traveling in water  Got here through medical testing using the African Clawed Frog as a vector  In Kansas the Bullfrog is chytrid resistant, but is also the cow of the amphibians

What does chytrid do?  Makes amphibians lethargic, frogs unable to right themselves when flipped over  Frogs won’t hop away when approached  Fungus afflicts the keratin in the skin and prevents the frog from using its skin to breathe  Pieces of skin begin to fall off  Witnessed 80% of an amphibian population decline in one month’s time.  Arrows point to Chytrid on the eye of a frog

Patch of Chytrid on a toad

What can we do about this?  Protect  Conserve  Educate

 Amphibian Ark is a program coordinated by the World Conservation Union (IUCN)/Species Survival Commission (SSC) Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), and supported by a worldwide network of zoos and aquariums, to help keep threatened amphibian species afloat.

 The plan is to rescue amphibians before they are gone  Protect amphibians in captive facilities until the threats to the wild populations can be controlled, build the ark.  The Kansas City Zoo supports the Amphibian Ark by building an ark and by participating in a global public awareness campaign, “2008: The Year of the Frog”

Why did the we become involved? TTTThe need for conservation is greater than ever, with one vertebrate species disappearing from the Earth every day -- we need to work together to save our ecosystems. TTTThe Kansas City Zoo is involved with amphibian conservation because it is our mission to conserve as well as educate

What are we doing at the Kansas City Zoo?  Education campaign  Camps, on site and off site programs  Staff and volunteer education  Special exhibit signage and interactive displays  Special events are frog themed with interactive components  Producing materials for distribution  Teacher poster and packet  Creating an amphibian game for secondary science curriculum  Buttons  Building an ark  Video of ark with Wyoming Toad

What does it look like?  Two rooms each 8’x8’x8’  One door in each  Own water and HVAC systems  Amphibians will be housed in tanks  Public will not be allowed to access

Amphibians will be held in tanks inside the biosecure room, capacity is 16 shelves on four shelving units

Our Ark

Ark Shelving Units

Inside of our ark

What’s in the Ark in Australia Section of the zoo?  Wyoming Toad  Extinct in the Wild IUCN  Lumpy little amphibians, 2 inches long as an adult  Rapid population decline in the 1970’s  Only found in the Hutton Lake National Wildlife Refuge and the Mortenson Lake National Wildlife Refuge, south central Wyoming, close to Laramie  The refuge is closed to all public access to aid in recovery efforts of this endangered species.  Historically, the toad was only found in Laramie Basin, 30 miles from Laramie.

 Part of the Species Survival Plan’s breeding and reintroduction program  Kansas City Zoo is one of 9 zoos participating  Will arrive sometime this summer  Number of individuals is not known at this time  This burrowing animal inhabits floodplains, ponds, and ditches in the short grass regions of the basin.

We have to get good at keeping them alive.  Depending upon our success with care  We might be a holding facility  We might be allowed to breed  All determined by the Wyoming Toad SSP  Have to share what we are doing and what we learn  Applied to be the education liaison

Species Survival Program History:  1950’s-Considered one of the most plentiful species in the Laramie Basin of Albany County, Wyoming  1970’s-Widespread aerial spraying of fenthion for mosquito control and rapid toad declines observed  1984-Federally listed as an endangered species  1993-The last known locale for wild toads, Mortenson Lake, was made into a National Wildlife Refuge by the Nature Conservancy  1994-Remaining toads were brought into captivity and it was declared extinct in the wild  1996-SSP was approved by AZA Wyoming Toad (Bufo baxteri) Participating AZA Zoos: Central Park Zoo Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Detroit Zoo Houston Zoo Memphis Zoo Mississippi River Museum Museum of Science Henry Doorly Zoo Toledo Zoo Zoo Montana US FWS Facilities: Redbuttes Environmental, Laramie, WY Saratoga National Fish Hatchery, Saratoga, WY Swabbing a toad for chytrid monitoring during a survey Cooperating Institutions US Fish and Wildlife Service Association of Zoos and Aquariums Wyoming Game and Fish Private Land Owners Today: 438 toads in captivity at 11 institutions Approximately 94,000 tadpoles and toadlets released to the wild since 1995 Proceeds from your donation will go to support field work and other SSP activities Wild toad outfitted with a backpack containing a radio transmitter Opportunities: Summer toad population surveys in the Laramie Basin Chytrid monitoring of local amphibian populations Assisting in husbandry and captive breeding of toads at the Redbuttes facility in Laramie Participating in tadpole releases in the Laramie Basin Who to contact for more info : Bruce Foster, SSP coordinator Val Hornyak, SSP Vice-coordinator Sarah Armstrong, studbook keeper Strings of captive produced toad eggs at the Redbuttes facility

What can you do?  Go Green  Be able to respond when asked about the situation  Make a Toad Abode  Talk about how cool frogs are  Go outside and listen for frog calls with your friends and family  Get people and kids to love frogs  Encourage your friends and family to visit our Zoo.