GHENT UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE Academic year 2016 - 2017 NUTRITION OF THE TITICACA WATER FROG (TELMATOBIUS CULEUS) by Stéphane KNOLL Promoters: Muñoz-Saravia Arturo Research Report as part of the Prof. dr. Janssens Geert P. J. Master's Dissertation © 2017 Stéphane KNOLL Disclaimer Universiteit Gent, its employees and/or students, give no warranty that the information provided in this thesis is accurate or exhaustive, nor that the content of this thesis will not constitute or result in any infringement of third-party rights. Universiteit Gent, its employees and/or students do not accept any liability or responsibility for any use which may be made of the content or information given in the thesis, nor for any reliance which may be placed on any advice or information provided in this thesis. GHENT UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE Academic year 2016 - 2017 NUTRITION OF THE TITICACA WATER FROG (TELMATOBIUS CULEUS) by Stéphane KNOLL Promoters: Muñoz-Saravia Arturo Research Report as part of the Prof. dr. Janssens Geert P. J. Master's Dissertation © 2017 Stéphane KNOLL Foreword: This research has been conducted as a part of the master’s degree at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Ghent University, Belgium. As third master student, graduating in the field of research, conducting a research project is an important part of the master dissertation. I feel very lucky for being assigned such an interesting topic and had the chance to travel abroad. For this reason, I would like to thank the Ghent University for the amazing opportunity to conduct research abroad and get some international experience. I am very thankful I was able to travel to Bolivia for four months and execute this research project. It was an absolutely incredible experience and I would love to continue doing research in the field of animal nutrition. I would like to express a great amount of gratitude to prof. dr. Geert P. J. Janssens and especially Arturo Muñoz-Saravia for making all this possible. Thankyou Arturo for organizing this research project and for all you hospitality and expertise here in Belgium and in Bolivia. Furthermore, I would like to thank the directory team at the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d’Orbigny in Cochabamba, Bolivia for all their help and support. A big thankyou to Ricardo Céspedes and Eliana Lizarraga. Fourthly, the team of BAI working in the captive breeding program in Cochabamba, as well as the BAI-research team in Bolivia also deserve a great amount of gratitude for all their help. In particular I would like to thank Gabriel Callapa for working with me in the field and helping me get around in Bolivia. Furthermore I would also like to thank Adriana Aguila Sainz, Alejandra Suarez Telles, Andrea Sandoval, Boris Bozo Herrera, Natalia Sanchez, Nazaria Lazzo, Ricardo Zurita Ugarte, Sophia M. Barron Lavayen, for the help I received catching and sorting potential prey items in the Titicaca Lake. Next, another thanks goes out to Arturo Muñoz-Saravia for helping me with the statistical analysis and processing of the data and a big thanks to Andrea Brenes Soto for helping with the nutrient intake calculations. Last but not least a big thank you goes out to my wonderful parents for their emotional, mental and financial support during this journey. I couldn’t have done it without them! Finally I would like to express how blessed I feel to be able to conduct research that will potentially help out endangered species and will put amphibian nutrition is a brighter light. It has always been a passion of mine to work in the field of wildlife conservation and being able to contribute to the preservation of our world’s wonderful biodiversity. Exotic animals, especially little critters like amphibians, fish, reptiles, and even insects have always had a special place in my heart. For as long as I can remember I have been catching and studying these animals in my free time. So being able to do the same on a semi- professional level and making a difference for these animals is a dream come true. I have to say that I have really found myself in the field of research and again, I would like to thank prof. dr. Geert P. J. Janssens and Arturo Muñoz-Saravia for this and, for making this project possible. I hope we will be working together again in the near future! Contents: SUMMARY: ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 SAMENVATTING: ............................................................................................................................................. 1 RESEARCH ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 3 2. THE TITICACA WATER FROG (TELMATOBIUS CULEUS) .............................................................................. 5 2.1. OCCURRENCE AND HABITAT ................................................................................................................. 5 2.2. MORPHOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY ........................................................................................................ 6 2.3. DIET ...................................................................................................................................................... 8 2.4. CONSERVATION STATUS ....................................................................................................................... 9 3. THE DIGESTIVE TRACT OF AMPHIBIANS ................................................................................................. 10 4. METABOLISM ......................................................................................................................................... 12 5. NUTRITION ............................................................................................................................................. 13 5.1. PROTEIN ............................................................................................................................................. 14 5.2. FAT ..................................................................................................................................................... 16 5.3. CARBOHYDRATES ............................................................................................................................... 16 5.4. MINERALS .......................................................................................................................................... 16 5.5. VITAMINS ........................................................................................................................................... 17 6. FEEDING MANAGEMENT OF ADULT AMPHIBIANS .................................................................................. 18 7. NUTRITIONAL DISEASE ........................................................................................................................... 21 8. MATERIAL AND METHODS ..................................................................................................................... 22 9. RESULTS ................................................................................................................................................. 26 10. DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................................ 31 10.1. PREY SELECTION .................................................................................................................................... 31 10.2. THEORETICAL NUTRIENT RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................... 37 REFERENCES:.................................................................................................................................................. 44 APPENDIX: ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 1. ADDITIONAL RESULTS .............................................................................................................................. 1 2. SUPPORTING GRAPHS .............................................................................................................................. 4 3. ILLUSTRATIVE MATTERIAL ........................................................................................................................ 5 4. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION .................................................................................................................... 8 Summary: Nutrition is a considerable bottleneck in the ex situ maintenance of amphibians and is increasingly important in the context of captive breeding programs and worldwide amphibian declines. For these reasons, the dietary nutrient profile of the critically endangered Titicaca water frog (Telmatobius culeus) was determined and an attempt was made to deduce its nutritional requirements. During this research, a total of 12 types of potential prey items were attained and proximate analysis was carried out, together with mineral analysis, in order to determine their nutrient contents. Next, this data was combined with results of a previously performed gut content analysis to generate T. culeus’ dietary