The Sehuencas water frog (Telmatobius yuracare) is a species of frog in the family Telmatobiidae. It is endemic to Bolivia.[1][2] Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, rivers, and freshwater marshes. It is threatened by habitat loss.[1] No individuals were encountered in the wild between 2008 and 2019.[3]
| Sehuencas water frog | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Telmatobiidae |
| Genus: | Telmatobius |
| Species: | T. yuracare
|
| Binomial name | |
| Telmatobius yuracare De la Riva, 1994
| |
Conservation work
editConservation of the Sehuencas water frog has been a focus of the K'ayra Center, run by herpetologist Teresa Camacho Badani at the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d'Orbigny (MHNC) in Cochabamba.
A single male Sehuencas water frog, nicknamed "Romeo," was collected from the wild in 2009 and housed at the K'ayra Center at the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d'Orbigny (MHNC).[4] There were fears that Romeo was the last of his kind, an endling. Bolivian conservationists had long been looking for other Sehuencas water frog individuals, particularly females, in hopes of creating a captive breeding program. To raise awareness and money about the plight of the Sehuencas water frog, conservationists from Global Wildlife Conservation[4] and the Bolivian Amphibian Initiative created a profile for Romeo on Match.com, an online dating website.[5] In January 2019, an expedition headed by Badani in a Bolivian cloud forest led to the discovery of five more individuals: three males and two females.[6] The re-discovered frogs will be treated against chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease causing widespread decline of amphibians.[7] After treatment, Romeo will be introduced to a female called Juliet. Despite this, there are concerns that there are too few frogs left in the wild for a sustainable long-term population, and thus captive breeding is considered the best way to restore the species.
References
edit
- ^ a b c IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2020). "Telmatobius yuracare". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T57369A154335458. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T57369A154335458.en. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
- ^ Frost, Darrel R. (2022). "Telmatobius yuracare De la Riva, 1994". Amphibian Species of the World: An Online Reference. Version 6.1. American Museum of Natural History. doi:10.5531/db.vz.0001. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
- ^ Burrowes, P. A.; De la Riva, I. (2017). "Unraveling the historical prevalence of the invasive chytrid fungus in the Bolivian Andes: implications in recent amphibian declines". Biological Invasions. 19 (6): 1781–1794. Bibcode:2017BiInv..19.1781B. doi:10.1007/s10530-017-1390-8. S2CID 254291006.
- ^ a b "Finding a Mate for the World's Loneliest Frog". Global Wildlife Conservation. Retrieved 2018-04-24.
- ^ "Bolivia's lonely frog: Scientists race to find mate for Romeo". BBC. 9 February 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
- ^ Briggs, Helen (15 January 2019). "World's 'loneliest' frog gets a date". BBC news. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
- ^ Waller, Robert W.; Fischman, Debra L.; Rodrigues, Ana S. L.; Young, Bruce E.; Cox, Neil A.; Chanson, Janice S.; Stuart, Simon N. (3 December 2004). "Status and Trends of Amphibian Declines and Extinctions Worldwide". Science. 306 (5702): 1783–1786. Bibcode:2004Sci...306.1783S. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.225.9620. doi:10.1126/science.1103538. PMID 15486254. S2CID 86238651.