3. Introduction
– Why are they important?
– What role do they play in the ecosystem?
– How can a frog be useful to me?

4. Why are they important?
Phyllomedusa vaillanti
• Natural pest control (they eat a lot of insects)
• Food source for many animals. Societies like
China, France and some Amazon tribes eat frogs
• Amphibians that have an acuatic and terrestrial
life, help move nutrients in and out of acuatic and
terrestrial environments and food chains.
• In island ecosystems (like Haiti) frogs account for
the largest amount of vertebrate biomass
• They are part of our culture

5. Calls of some Haitian frog species
Mozart’s frog Lap-fè-lapli frog La Hotte land frog

6. What role do they play in the ecosystem?
Amphibians occupy every land ecosystem

7. How can a frog be useful to me?
They help public health by eating
mosquitos, that causes diseases
like malaria and dengue fever
They help the economy by eating pests
of crops, reducing harmful insects
and eliminating the need to use
pesticides

8. Threatened amphibian species
Number of species
1
2-3
4-6
7-10
11-14
15-18
19-22
23-26
27-30
31-37

9. De esta reunión sale un mandato para
seguir cuatro tipo de intervenciones
necesarias para garantizar la supervivencia
de los anfibios y se enfatiza en que estos
deben ser iniciados inmediatamente:
1) Expandir el conocimiento de las causas
del declive
2) Continuar documentando la diversidad de
anfibios y como esta va cambiando
3) Desarrollar e implementar programas de
conservación a largo plazo; y
4) Estar preparado para responder de
inmediato a emergencias y crisis de
conservación (eventos de muertes masivas)

11. Causes of amphibian decline:
Habitat destruction and disturbance

12. Causes of amphibian decline:
Global Climate Change

13. Causes of amphibian decline:
Chytrid fungus
• Identified in 1993 from tropical frogs
from Australia, Costa Rica, and US zoos
• Infectious disease that invades the
amphibian skin killing the frog
• Spread worldwide by introduced species
and humans.

14. Chytridiomicosis

15. Building Local Management Capacity
and Conservation Plans to Save
Endangered Frogs in Haiti and the DR
Macaya National Park
Macaya National Park
Sierra de Bahoruco
and
La Visite National Park
La Visite National Park Bahoruco Oriental

16. Habitat destruction and alteration =
Habitat loss

20. Problem?
Pic Macaya National Park Headquarters and Research Center

21. Total habitat degradation
Pic Macaya National Park – Massif de La Hotte

27. Philadelphia Zoo
Captive reproduction program to
save endangered frogs in Haiti
• Individual rooms for raising
frogs
• Each frog room has up to six
tanks to reproduce frogs by
species.
• One room for raising insect to
feed the frogs
• Additional for water filtration
and water storage tanks

28. Macaya breast-spot frogs

31. 1400 frogs from 9 species

35. Efforts to conserve amphibians and their habitat in the mountain ranges of
Massif de la Hotte and Massif de La Selle/Sierra de Bahoruco

36. LONG TERM IMPACT
• Help prevent the extinction of endemic frogs and their
habitats in the forests of Haiti and the Dominican Republic
• Help change attitudes towards these often feared
creatures
SHORT TERM IMPACTS
• 2-year species monitoring program to determine:
– habitat use, species assemblage, population size, structure and
recruitment, document breeding and foraging behavior
• Project will take place from October 2012 to September
2014.

37. WHAT WE AIM TO DO
1. Create awareness of the pressing issue of amphibian
extinction at the local and government levels.
2. Provide amphibian management guidelines to private and
government institutions.
3. Test for the presence of chytrid fungus
4. Understand how amphibians survive with deforestation and
extreme loss of habitat in fragmented habitats.
5. Incorporate our team to international amphibian
conservation initiatives.

38. HOW ARE WE GOING TO DO IT
1. Work with local NGO’s and government to develop
amphibian management guidelines that include in situ and
ex situ conservation measures.
2. Monitor amphibians populations to learn if:
• chytrid fungus is present
• Amphibians can maintain populations in degraded and
fragmented landscape
3. Provide our results to land managers and stakeholders in
Haiti and the Dominican Republic

39. Local Management Capacity and
Conservation Plans
• Round table discussion next week with government and
non government stakeholders from Haiti
• Ministry of Agriculture
Local Government • Ministry of Environment
• Université Quisqueya
Academic Institutions • Pennsylvania State University
• Société Audubon Haïti
Conservation and • Critical Ecosystem
Research Partnership Fund (CEPF)
Organizations • The Philadelphia Zoo
Media and Public • Philadelphia Inquirer
Outreach • CaribeMotion

42. Merci!
Foto de Margarita Medina; cortesía del Facebook