URODELA NEWSLETTER NUMBER 11
March 2006
Currently I am preparing for my Californian trip but I still wanted to distribute this before I left. As such I hope to re-write a new Urodela newsletter with new info on the longtoed ecological observations in rleation with captive management, the recent and numerous taxonomical splits in European salamander taxonomy and some notes on the CA trip itself. Anyway the limited themes in this Newsletter are :
1. "Belgian National Zoo Amphibian project"
2. Image collection
3. Upcoming Field trips
4. Hynobidae - the void ?
5. Article database - collection : re-actualised
1. "Belgian National Zoo Amphibian project"
The National Zoo of Antwerp is currently working on a new amphibian facility, which will open it's doors around mid may 2006. With this new building they want to put some new life into their 'amphibian' activities and as a consequence they also intend to work deeper into this group of animals, first starting off with some 'display' settings, but with the intention to extend this further and enhance their activities in 'captive husbandry & breeding' with so-called sensitive or ecologically interesting species. In order to ensure this succes, they made contacts with private key-persons , who act as consultants and give them tips & traps on how to install the tanks, keep, breed and rear the animals. They started working this way with the posion arrow frogs and since this worked well, they extended this to other groups of animals too. After attending a lecture I gave on caecilians, I was contacted for their salamander & caecilian work. So far I have met up with them and have given input/tips & traps on the installation of the paludaria. They aim at 5 terrariums. I have also thought about which species could be interesting for them and picked out following species so far :
- Cynops ensicauda : this species is under pressure some in nature, it is longliving, does very well in 'normal' room temperatures, has a good siaply content and breeds quite easy. So to my opinion this is an interesting choice in terms of conservation & display content
- Tylototriton verrucosus : this species can also be kept aquatic (good disaply content), at warmer temperatures and breeds quite easy
- Typhlonectes natans : they also wanted to display caecilian species, as such Typhlonectes natans seems a valid choice. They are available as CB animals, aquatic and also long living (we have an animal overhere that is over 25 years old)
What makes it even more interesting is that these 3 species can / will be delivered as captive bred animals from the private sector. Some of them with exact locality data.
Currently we are still trying to get a hold on 1 more aquatic species (Paramesotriton ?) and one more terrestrial species (Plethodont or other). The amphibian room will be darkened and especially for the terrestrial species we will inverse the life/light cycle so that this enhances the chances of seeing the amphibians in activity during the day (for us) while they think it is night. I hope it works.
If this all works out well, then they might be interested in keeping other species behind the sets that have a less 'display' content. If so, I will keep my door open for some Hynobius offspring.
2. Image collection
As always I have tried making some new shots on various salamander species, both in nature and under captive management.
I was also happy to be able to make some shots on Paramesotriton laoensis in Germany. In the last fall I have bought a new double coated macro diopter that gives a crispy sharp images all over the frame. With this I am now well armed to document the upcoming next salamander breeding and insect season. Hopeing to make good shots of various eggs & larvae … A negative note from the technical field however is that my camera-brand unfortunatelly fell off the market : Minolta threw in the towel and no longer makes digital cameras. Sony which will take over will aparently not support the high-end range… This has set me in a pessimistical mood, having my macro-lenses laying in the cupboard waiting for that 8 or 10 megapixel stabilised body. So now I am going to have to step in earlier as planned and try and try buying on of the remaining 5D or 7D soon, so that I can take it along on my next upcoming salamander fieldtrips.
For 2006 I would also like to try to extend the image section of some European species. As you all know I do not keep European species myself, so this means I will have to do some trips. Also I would like to cover our own Belgian amphibian & reptile species a bit more indepth by doing field photography in the Southern part of Belgium.
In the last month new shots have been added both on in the Living underworld & Amphibiaweb-site on quite some Amphibian species incl. Ambystoma macrodactylum (a nice one on eggs), Ranodon sibericus, Plethodon dorsalis, Salamandra algira, Lissotriton boscai, Ambystoma mexicanum, Hynobius yiwuensis, Hynobius okiensis, Paramesotriton laoensis, Bufo bufo, Dendrobates leucomelas, Dendrobates auratus, Cynops cyanurus (is it ?). I hope many more may follow.
You can see the shots at :
http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=8
3. Upcoming Field trips
In the upcoming year I will be doing some travelling around in which I hope to photograph quite some new species. Currently it looks like I have about 130 salamander species covered, most of which in multiple life stages. I want to further extend this preferably by documenting them in nature. Also rearing of eggs under captive conditions (for non European species) is my next favourite activity.
During march I will be going to California where with the help of some fieldworkers I would like to document on as much species as possible and feasable. California has quite some potential and I sure hope to make new shots on the species I already have covered (up North) and then hike over the Sierra Nevada then up again into SF to catch a flight back. During these 9 days we hope to be driving a lot of miles and enjoy a lot of nature. The result of this trip will be shown as a lecture to the German Urodela circle in the fall. I will also cover parts of it at a Swiss meeting in Lausanne.
Furthermore I will be going into Spain, Costa Verde during the summer and will at least try to document some of the species living there. If it rains and temperatures are cool I may see some amphibians , if not and it is hot then I will cover some insects, eitherway I don't see I can return unhappy from there. But let's be honest : I would love it to rain during the fall of the evening and get a nice sunny day. I would surely hope to shoot Salamandra salamandra bernardezi and if I get lucky Chioglossa lusitanica. Along the trip I may plan a stop to visit the Spanish Urodela group, have a talk and at the same time visit their installations, which may result in other nice shots ??
In september I am honored to be invited again by the Swiss Lausanne herpetological society, where I will talk on my salamander activities and give a short insight on my Californian trip too. After that we may possibly go into the mountains and try and photograph some of the Swiss amphibian wildlife, like Bombina and maybe Salamandra atra in the wild. So this could be really interesting, so far S. atra is one of the European species I have not yet seen alive yet !
4. Hynobidae - the void ?
For over 10 years now I have been busy keeping Hynobius salamanders, which together with the Ambystoma species became my preferate group of species. Over this period I have bred with all the pondtype species of which I have a valid breeding group so far. This includes : H. dunni, H. retardatus, H. tokyoensis, H. nebulosus and last year I finally succceeded breeding my last remaining mystery : H. lichenatus. I am currently rearing 2 H. nigrescens , hoping they are a breeding pair, but I guess changes are slim they will turn out to be just that. I have also been quite succesfull breeding H. quelpaertensis, which prooves to be a very easy and explosive breeder. So overall I can say that the pond type species are easy to keep and to breed if one keeps itself to some tricks :
- Offer plenty food in the fall period, so the animals can store en re-use for the upcoming breeding period
- keep them quite cool during the winter (close to 0°C for some periods)
- suddenly refresh the water in the spring as sun sets through, raise the water level . do this every week or 2 weeks till april.
- install dead twigs in the tanks for them to deposit the eggs on. The twigs are best posiotned this way that they slowly mount up and run paralel under the water surface. The twigs should be strong enough to hold more animals, depending on the size of the species twigs of 0,7 or 2,0 cm in diameter can be used.
- In the event this succeeds and you get eggs, keep an eye open as the eggs develop: when the larvae internally in the eggs start to move it may be possible that predation sets in (first discovered this last year in H. retardatus). If this arrives remve the parents form the tank (removing the eggs may harm their evolution and develop saprolegnia).
Although many H. dunni have been spread to various keepers (over 300 !) there has currently only been just 1 other breeding report of this species. Despite many lectures and articles depicting my experiences with this species it seems a btit empty… This looks either somewhat disappointing or means that there are other factors important which I am not yet aware of. So shortly put, work on the table again (but hopefully not alone for me). I fear that aside some 'hard-cored' keepers which are still attempting to actually breed this species, H. dunni may also have suffered somewhat from one-time keepers, trying out something new and then as they don't have much flashy colors left them for something else… Too bad, since it is indeed an intruiging species with an interesting breeding strategy. But let me not get too negative either, there are actually some people that do work well with them and from whom I may possibly expect breedings. Last year 2 German people came up and described the behaviour with such a detail that I know they are on the good way Also it takes up tot 3 or 4 years to get sexually mature animals.
It does look like this year will be a good year for the species though ; so far I have 7 egg sacs deposited and approx 9 adult males still hang around the eggs. In the future I may add a little collection of this species in the Antwerp Zoo project. For now it does seem that H. tokyoensis animals are more succesfully bred; we are currently at F-2 of the species and I have knowledge of at least 2 other breedings occuring in Germany. 2 years ago Salamandrella keyserlingii has delivered larvae in France. As for now I have not spread any of my offspring H. nebulosus & lichenatus since I first wanted to enlarge my own breeding groups. Also my H. retardatus have again deposited some eggsacs (2) but I have yet to see active males, so I fear they are not fertilised. H. retardatus however is not an as easy species to raise as the other hynobidae. Fall out among youngsters in juvenile landphase is somewhat higher then in the other species (but not dramatic) and also their behavior is somewhat different, I laughingly describe them as being the plethodonts among hynobidae (they seem to avoid wed soil and like to sit up high in the tank taking advantage of air-humidity).
For what concerns streambreeding species successes have been too limited (at least to my taste). One thing being the troublesome acquisition of valid breeding groups : these species are unfortunately not bred in captivity and as such finding juveniles is quite impossible. On the other hand animals that get offered are almost strictly males. Since they tend to be longer in the water then the females this is a logic fact. Thirdly the requirements for streambreeders are quite different then the requirements for pond breeders : they need lots of stones and cavities, the water should be cool & running resulting in more difficult situations to achieve.
As for now, I have had egg depostions in H. okiensis (where I only seem to have 2 remainin females) over the last 2 years. I think breeding this species is surprisingly enough, quite possible and seeing the current threat the animals ('critically endangerd' ) a captive breeding project (whoever wants to go for it) can only be recommended.
My H. yiwuensis group are doing great and I have already had an eggdeposition. This occurred however when I installed the animals in an outdoor enclosure. This year I would try and breed them indoors. Upon the last inspection (I try to disturb as few as possible) the female animals were having eggs visible in the bellies. The male looked healthy too.
Apart from those 2 species I also have single or a few species of streambreeding Hynobidae like H. kimurae, H. naevius, H. tsuensis & H. boulengeri. My group of 5 H. tsuensis are as far as I can tell for now, possibly all males. Both the H. kimurae are still too young , but I think it holds 1 female. Both H. boulengeri were quite slim upon arrival and as such are still nursed up to become large nice animals before we attempt whatsoever. In H. naevius I got 2 anmilas, one of which clearly is a female. I fear however that the other species is something entirely different. I have to admit that this species is a real heartbreaker to me, very colorful !
5. Article database - collection : re-actualised
In the past I have strated collecting lots of articles and books on salamanders. All these titles were installed in a database and for each article I have added keyfields mentioning if a certain topic was treated in the article. The only problem was that this data was still stored in a dbase 3 dbf file. During the last couple of months I have re-organised this entirely and put this in an access database setup, with mutliple reference tables. So it now has becommen a relational database after all. Maintenance is easier and this arrived quite at time , so that the numerous taxonomical changes in the European salamander world just came down on changing the name of a genus in one table. Anyway to cut a long story short I can now freely pull down a list per species of all the articles that mention either one of the keywords e.g. breeding, captive maintenance, temperature & larvae or in case you are picky all the articles that cover all 4 these keywords. In total there are about 20 keywords in use for now. All the articles are also stored in my library overhere which currently holds 4.400 references. Recently I have started adding electronical articles (pdf format) to this database and as such it has been growing. I have forwarded a pdf format list with titles that mention repro/captive care/ installation of terrariums specifically for salamanders to the IUCN.