The Amphibian Foundation's Frog Blog

This year, the Amphibian Foundation and partners (Florida Fish and Wildlife, Orianne Society, Detroit Zoo, and others) received a Conservation Wildlife Tag grant to support captive breeding efforts for the imperiled Striped Newt ( Notophthalmus perstriatus ). The support has gone towards improvements int he captive propagation facilities, and in the establishment of a large Daphnia culturing facility to produce live food for both the adult and larval newts. A paedomorphic adult newt in the Amphibian Lab at the Amphibian Foundation Yesterday, we completed the next phase by moving the colony into our Amphibian Lab, a climate controlled facility where temperature and photoperiod can be optimized for the health of the newts. Luckily, we had a great team to help us with task that involved moving large amounts of water (always fun) as well as a good amount of bleach, and gingerly moving these newts into their new home Amanda (left), Javiera (middle) and Abby (right) obviously ...

from bottom left: Tess, Matt, Nooch, Fred, Anita (with large lizard) Chelsea, Lauren, Claire, Elliott, Leslie and Kirill Lots of fun, food and critters ... We have an absolutely amazing team of staff, volunteers and interns working to save amphibians and educate people via Instagram http://ift.tt/2b9zqzw

Leslie Phillips, Amphibian Keeper at the Garden, with a newly hatched Eleutherodactylus coqui  We had particularly great luck finding frogs yesterday while giving a tour of the Fuqua Conservatory to the Development Team at the Garden. The timing was perfect as a clutch of Coqui eggs was hatching right before our eyes! Coqui, and frogs of the genus Eleutherodactylus are direct developers , meaning the eggs develop directly into froglets and the tadpole stage is skipped. This allows the frogs to lay their eggs anywhere with a little moisture and there is no need for standing water. We were able to find both varieties of Red-eyed Leaf Frog, Agalychnis callidryas . The Bijagual form, with maroon eyes and orange stripes on the flanks, and the La Selva form with red eyes, and purple/blue stripes. Later that day, we went to the Atlanta History Center where we are consulting with them on constructing an ephemeral wetland on their property. We found Two-lined Salamanders (o...

The Amphibian Conservation Program staff: me (Mark Mandica), Leslie Phillips and Brad Wilson DVM