December 2020 AMPHIBIAN SURVIVAL ALLIANCE NEWTSLETTER Got a story you want to share? Drop Candace an email today! [email protected] Stories from our partners around the world © Rogger Angel Moreno Lino Moreno Angel © Rogger Reactivating the Lake Junín Giant Frog monitoring program By Rogger Angel Moreno Lino, Luis and economy; businesses and NGOs In this way, ASA partner Grupo Castillo Roque and Roberto Elias have stopped their activities and RANA participated in a project for Piperis. Grupo RANA (Peru) and reduced their budgets among other the monitoring and surveillance of Denver Zoological Foundation (U.S.) things (Smith-Bingham & Harlharan, populations of the Lake Junín Giant [email protected] 2020; Crothers, 2020). However, Frog (Telmatobius macrostomus) solidarity among people and institu- and the Junín ‘Wanchas’ (Telma- The world is going through difficult tions has allowed activities to be tobius brachydactylus) in three times due to the COVID-19 pan- progressively reactivated, though protected natural areas (Junín Na- demic (WWF, 2020). Many people following rigorous biosecurity meas- tional Reserve, Historic Sanctuary of have been affected in their health ures. Chacamarca and Huayllay National Page 1 Sanctuary). These activities were by Pablo Miñano Lecaros. The park (CCPH), the presence of six adult led by the Denver Zoological Foun- rangers Winy Arias López, Eduardo frogs was recorded around 500 dation and funded by the National Ruiz and Duane Martínez supported meters from our monitoring point Geographic Society and followed the the activities. at the south of the Junín National biosecurity measures recommended As part of the preliminary results, Reserve. by the Ministry of Health of Peru we report three adults of the Junín It should be noted that the CCPH (D.S. Nº 157-2020-PCM, 2020), the ‘Wanchas’ found in two localities is an organization of local dwellers National Forest and Wildlife Service and five adults of the Lake Junín who have been working with us in (SERFOR, 2020) and the National Giant Frog found in three localities. promoting the conservation of the Service of Natural Areas Protected We also found tadpoles of both spe- Lake Junín Giant Frog in the project by the State (SERNANP). cies in 9 of the 12 localities evalu- “Guardians of the Chinchaycocha The field work took place between ated. A frog was found dead from Frogs” funded by the Amphibian October 16 and 24, 2020. The group unknown causes, which will be ex- Survival Alliance, so that soon we dedicated to the study of the frog amined at the Wildlife Laboratory of will have more news on how the populations was led by Luis Castillo the Universidad Peruana Cayetano local communities provide scientific Roque, assisted by Henry Tinoco Heredia. information to specialists. Vega and Rogger Angel Moreno The number of adult individuals has Lino, while the group dedicated to been stable since 2015. In addi- the study of water quality using tion, thanks to a casual observation benthic macroinvertebrates was led by residents of the ‘Parcialidad de by Manuel Silva Poma and assisted Huarmipuquio’ Farming Community Editorial By Candace Hansen-Hendrikx, And the ASA is really going to hit As for the partnership, stay tuned Amphibian Survival Alliance the ground running in the New Year! for some exciting developments [email protected] I hope you will join me in welcoming in the New Year. We have already Helen Meredith back to the ASA Sec- started rolling out much of what you Welcome to the final edition of the retariat! She is returning in the role have asked for in the recent strate- Frogress Report for 2020! As we of ASA’s Chief Development Officer, gic planning partnership survey to look forward to 2021, many of us with the kind support of Synchronic- help you learn more about other may feel that we would like to leave ity Earth, GWC and the rest of the partners and to facilitate collabora- this entire year behind and forget all ASA Global Council. We are excited tion amongst partners on our web- about it. And while it has been an to have her back on the team and site. And stay tuned for an on-call extremely challenging year (physi- we look forward to working with list being developed for the partners cally, emotionally, financially and Helen on her efforts to support our shortly! We want to make it as easy more) on so many fronts, perhaps strategy, partners and Future Lead- as possible for you to not just get it would be helpful to just ground ers of Amphibian Conservation! the help you need, when you need, ourselves for a short moment and Speaking of these Future Leaders of but to also help other partners, be- remember the good things that this Amphibian Conservation, I am now cause we are all in this together! past year has brought us. going to ask you to help me wel- I could go on and on about all the If you read back through the previ- come two of them to the Frogress developments and things planned ous editions of the Frogress Report Report Editorial Team! Previous but I am going to hand Frogress over the past year, you will see awardees Kaya Klop-Toker and Kirsty Report over now to you, the part- many success stories and reasons Kyle will be starting in the New Year ners. This is what Frogress Report is to look forward to what 2021 might as Copy Editors. They will join me all about! have in store. And this edition is no and ASA’s Communications and Thank you everyone for your dedi- different. As you flip through the Partnership Officer and Frogress Re- cation to amphibian conservation pages you will join the celebrations port’s Assistant Editor Luis Fernando this past year and for all that you of AmphibiaWeb’s 20th Anniver- Marin da Fonte on the team. We have done! We cannot wait to see sary, the release of more than 400 look forward to working with them what we can all accomplish together captive-bred frogs and tadpoles into and continuing to improve and grow next year! the wild in South Africa, and the suc- Frogress Report for the partnership! cessful breeding of the last remain- They will be an invaluable part of ing Loa Water Frogs! And that is just making sure Frogress Report is the for starters! (Read on, and you will publication that the partnership is see what I mean!) coming to rely on. Page 2 AmphibiaWeb celebrates 20th anniversary in 2020 © AmphibiaWeb By Michelle Koo, David Wake. Force, Associate Director Michelle steering committee members. We AmphibiaWeb/ Museum of Verte- Koo collaborated with the Deanna offer lesson plans for educators, and brate Zoology, University of Olson, US Forest Service, to solve activity sheets and Spanish language California Berkeley (U.S.) two challenges: 1) create a reposi- comics for younger children. Much [email protected] tory to aggregate and share data on of our material, both research and the newly discovered Bsal fungus; educational outreach, is due to the AmphibiaWeb celebrates its 20th and 2) upgrade and migrate the Bd work of UC Berkeley undergradu- anniversary this year, which is Maps database, which was left with- ate apprentices in conjunction with remarkable for an online resource. out sustainable means to update staff. Each spring semester, US Our mission remains the same: we and share data. Thus, AmphibiaWeb herpetology classes participate by connect people around the world by built the Amphibian Disease portal, having their students research and synthesizing and sharing information where users can access a growing submit original species accounts. To about amphibians to enable better database for over 500 species from date, we have had 41 classes and research, education and conserva- 47 countries. It includes the first 546 students contribute to Amphibi- tion. Our team has grown over the US survey for Bsal (from May 2014 aWeb! We always welcome inquiries years; we now have 13 steering through August 2017) conducted by and new classes. committee members and 9 addi- the USGS (Waddle et al 2020). More We recognize that it can be chal- tional associates from universities than 11,000 samples are recorded lenging to keep up with all the and museums around the US and from reserves nationwide, all thank- progress and news posted on Australia, which includes three of fully negative for Bsal, which forms AmphibiaWeb, so we are launching our founders, Director David Wake, a valuable baseline for the US. We a quarterly newsletter starting in Associate Director Vance Vreden- link each species in the Disease December 2020 and invite you to burg and Database Administrator portal to the respective species ac- subscribe. We look forward to more Joyce Gross. We have adapted our counts. The repository will be critical years of service to the amphibian operational strategy over the years for serving as both an archive for biology community and the public. to sustain our mission by respond- researchers (important for scientific ing to changing research needs and reproducibility) and as a resource to new technologies. We are in the understand disease dynamics and midst of planning new changes to predict threats. Contact us if you or AmphibiaWeb and note a few major a colleague are embarking or have milestones here. chytrid samples and would like to 2 Most recently, we created and learn more. 0 Y launched a repository for Batra- From our beginning, AmphibiaWeb R chochytrium (Bd and Bsal) fungal has been an important educational t h A data, chytridiomycosis being one resource and activity. A S of the most devastating infectious Recently, we have produced origi- N R wildlife diseases in amphibians.