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Salamanders declining rapidly in Central America
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by Amy Judd | February 10, 2009 at 12:31 pm
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Salamanders are declining rapidly in areas like Central America, and scientists studying them have attributed this to global warming. Two species are already extinct and a few others are losing numbers so quickly that they look like they are heading towards extinction as well.
Just like some frogs, a type of fungus, called chytrid, seems to be responsible for this decline, but it could also be global warming.
However, according to David Wake, a scientists studying them in Central America, neither of these factors could be responsible for the popultion in that area.
In the 1970s, Wake spent several years researching lungless salamanders in the San Marcos region of western Guatemala, one of the most diverse and well-studied salamander communities in the American tropics.
Between 2005 and 2007, he and colleagues returned to that region and previous study sites in Mexico to survey salamanders and compare their results to the historical data.
Their data-collecting strategy remained the same: Spot as many salamanders as possible in a standard amount of time.
The numbers recorded this time are shocking - some species that could be seen 10 to 15 times an hour, are now not seen at all.
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Houston Zooat 11:59 on February 11th, 2009
The two images of salamanders were photographed by Paul Crump, a member of our Conservation Department during a one week trip across the central and south eastern US, visiting national forests and state and national parks in Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky and North and South Carolina with friend and colleague Tim Hermann, a reptile keeper at the Toledo Zoo.
“This was the experience of a lifetime,” said Crump, the Houston Zoo’s Amphibian Conservation Manager. “Coming as I do from England where there are maybe three newts in the whole country, and living in Texas where there may be 15 species of salamanders, this was an incredible trip. The diversity of the species was just phenomenal. We probably saw a thousand salamanders, individual specimens, in the course of just seven days,” added Crump.
“Salamanders are important to life on Earth from two different perspectives,” said Crump. “For one, they make up a very crucial part of the ecosystems in which they occur. They make up a massive proportion of the biomass, they play key roles in food chains, and because of their ecothermic and bi-phasic biology they play integral roles in nutrient cycles,” he added. “Secondly, but probably more importantly, salamanders in the eastern United States are a biodiversity treasure. No other region in the world has the diversity of species and for that reason alone they are deserving of our care and protection.
Houston Zoo has contributed a photo to this story.