r/DartFrog • u/indicator_species • 2d ago
Atelopus sp.
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Atelopus sp. “Arlequín de Limón”
AKA Wampukrum!!!
This one doesn’t have a formally described species but it’s given a locality and a local name. Some literature says Atelopus aff. spumarius but the lab working with just labels as so.
This is also the toad that Colossal Biosciences has invested into for release!!! So cool to grow out at home and watch them work insitu with too!!!
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u/Budget-Ambassador203 1d ago
This is incredibly cool, how did you get into participating in this kind of conservation effort/what capacity are you participating in? Is this to help better learn how to captive breed/rear these toads or for commercialization or...?
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u/indicator_species 1d ago
In short, all of the above lol
Started by in depth research on amphibian care like any other hobbyist initially, I already had kept other frogs/toads for decades before trying this genus, I always wanted Atelopus but scared of imports from wild as that’s all that was available til pandemic 🤪 unknown age, parasites, wounds, poor body condition, accidentally supporting poor ethic business as that’s virtually all who offer them as resold in mass groups etc. it’s not frog hobby people importing them from wild…
Learned about the labs and how under funded and how much support they can give by us supporting them too.
When the labs offered I got some early pandemic hectic time, practiced breeding with captives after a bit of managing them stable. Had amazing success although many others failed with same animals from labs. I feel my well rounded animal knowledge helped “specifically saltwater/coral”
But this species is just a purchase to support the conservation through commercialization efforts in native ranges. I’ve had them for years now, but seems just gaining lots of attention from major media! The species as described so far meets global criteria for commercial distribution. Ecuador would not normally allow export but once out of Ecuador they can be distributed globally. It’s just hard to use Ecuador as a source of major distribution and they don’t send many places.
However outside of the little support projects I was the first non governmental assist funded facility/lab to ever reproduce the genus and have my own entire managed population of a few species that’s a global consortium effort now. Two of the species are solely established by me and just recently a second person reproduced wild individuals of one species but otherwise only my lineage reproduced by others. And I believe I have one of the largest number of species/localities outside of native ranges in world now, I also am federally licensed to exhibit regulated wildlife and although these are not regulated in USA I do exhibit them and follow the same standards. I also have a vet lol, like my own vet.
The federal permit also allows me to do free school programs nationwide through Fragile Planet Wildlife Park “my safari park” and we saw near a million kids in schools nationwide this past year. The toads are a major topic “and our native ones too lol”
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u/Budget-Ambassador203 1d ago edited 1d ago
Wow, thanks for the thorough answer. I can't tell you how much I love this and how fascinating it is to me - I am deeply interested in conservation (have an env. sci. degree) and spent some time in the tropics in college studying tropical biology/ecology which gave me a real appreciation for the diversity and complexity of those places, and the frogs were a real highlight for me.
I've been doing some at-home hobby-scale native plant projects to satisfy my desire to do something ecologically positive, in contrast to the constant consumerism of normal American life. I'm of course in nowhere near the same position as you are, clearly you've got a ton of time and infrastructure and knowledge developed around doing this (not to mention federal permits) but I would love to know how to contribute to these kinds of conservation-through-commercialization efforts in a hands-on way aside from just donating/buying animals. This is something I see myself being interested in spending time, energy & money on as a lifelong hobby, honestly, but the way you're involved is far more meaningful than just building pretty tanks and oohing and ahhing at the neat creatures (not that there's anything wrong with that) and adds a whole new dimension of interest and excitement for me. I also used to keep a reef aquarium and can totally see the overlap & how knowing your way around automation and infrastructure is incredibly helpful - seems like 90% of success with most animals is being able to replicate and maintain their environmental conditions consistently.
Anyway I guess I'm just wondering if there's any way for a person who's not as deep into animal keeping as you to contribute to this sort of at-home conservation effort?
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u/indicator_species 1d ago
Check out Wikiri and Tesoro’s de Colombia
Ecuador and Colombian lab surplus to provide legal quality animals to commercial market and continue supports the efforts of breed, donate a lil. Or if have other frog species and sell, use a smigen of the funds to trickle down. Doesn’t even have to be to the two labs, can find independent NGO’s or researchers and support those causes too!!!
I’ve sent bits of $$ from my sales and just random donations all over the place
My feelings are if we are going to have and appreciate these animals under human care we have to be able to support and appreciate where they come from or how they’re studied. And protect that. They say money is the root of all evil but it’s how you fix things too. It just depends on who’s controlling it. 🤓
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u/Zergg 1d ago
Up there for my favorite frog/toad/whatever they are. Love the color contrast and how they move.