Amami-Oshima Sword Tailed Newts (Cynops ensicauda ensicauda) - Information Wanted

Hi everyone,

I am hoping to find out more information about the C.e.ensicauda subspecies and also peoples experiences too (Both Breeding and Husbandry related experience). I have recently acquired a fully grown Male specimen that is a proven breeder and of a good blood line (LTC individual from one of the last legal exports of their kind from Japan/Rykyu Island Chain - apparently)

I am planning to breed this specimen for a Conservation project so any experiences from people would be fantastic is you have breed them, I do have the Conservation Breeding book which contains information but I would like to hear peoples views on here!!

Thank you all, for reading and for helping out.

TylototritonGuy

Lots of C.ensicauda popei are still being exported, as are many other Japanese species. I don't know if C.e.ensicauda is among them, but it would likely be considered less desirable.

FrogEyes said:

Lots of C.ensicauda popei are still being exported, as are many other Japanese species. I don't know if C.e.ensicauda is among them, but it would likely be considered less desirable.

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Well I would be interested to find out if they are still legally exported (I am 100% certain there must be illegal exports of them though like everywhere lol). I was slightly confused when I was told about the following above, hence why I said apparently but if you know of any information regarding export/import of C.e.ensicauda, I would be interested to find out further information.

As for more individuals, I would prefer a CB unrelated blood line if anyone knows of any being currently bred.

Here are some photographs of the individual! I am not totally convinced its a Male though but need to look closer at it tomorrow lol

Here it is! Need to give it a Japanese name I think ©


And another photo! ©


Thank you for looking at my photos and Look forward to hearing from you all

TyloGuy

TylototritonGuy said:

I am planning to breed this specimen for a Conservation project

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What's the project, if you don't mind me asking?

I noticed that you were handling the animal with some type of disposable glove. Thought I would point out this thread if you may not have seen it: http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...57402-disposable-gloves-toxic-amphibians.html

Mark said:

What's the project, if you don't mind me asking?

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Not at all Mark, just a little breeding programme of a few Asian species, I would like it to kick off more in Professional Collections regarding Endangered Asiatic Herptiles (In my case Amphibians). Just to see if it kicks off you know, I know some zoo's in the UK had Tylototriton but that doesn't appear very widespread :/

Jan said:

I noticed that you were handling the animal with some type of disposable glove. Thought I would point out this thread if you may not have seen it: http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...57402-disposable-gloves-toxic-amphibians.html

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Thank you Jan, the gloves are a special made Latex that are Powder Free, but thank you I certainly haven't seen this thread before and you have me intrigued! Do you happen to know where I can find that article?

TylototritonGuy said:

Thank you Jan, the gloves are a special made Latex that are Powder Free, but thank you I certainly haven't seen this thread before and you have me intrigued! Do you happen to know where I can find that article?

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Hmmm, I see that the link no longer works....it is ~5 years old. You might try contacting PARC (Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation) where the article was published on their website and ask them.

Jan said:

Hmmm, I see that the link no longer works....it is ~5 years old. You might try contacting PARC (Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation) where the article was published on their website and ask them.

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Hmmm I shall thank you, I believe I saw something to do with PARC a few weeks ago on HerpDigest! lol Just to update you Jan, I decided to check out the gloves I used and turns out they are Non-Latex gloves and are made for handling Amphibia but thank you so much for bringing it up, you have made me more aware of such things now!!

TylototritonGuy said:

Not at all Mark, just a little breeding programme of a few Asian species, I would like it to kick off more in Professional Collections regarding Endangered Asiatic Herptiles (In my case Amphibians). Just to see if it kicks off you know, I know some zoo's in the UK had Tylototriton but that doesn't appear very widespread :/

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Thanks. It's still a little unclear what your project is. Are you intending to breed them as a private collector or as part of a zoo collection? Are there institutions in the UK interested in breeding programs for asian newts? What is the purpose of breeding them? You said it was a conservation project? What's the conservation element?

Yes, please, i´m very interested in knowing how this works, too.
In addition to Mark´s questions, you mentioned the locality of origin of the animal but it seemed to me there were possible doubts?

As a note, latex has been shown to be toxic to amphibians (at least larvae). If you use gloves, use Nitrile, powder free ones.

Mark said:

Thanks. It's still a little unclear what your project is. Are you intending to breed them as a private collector or as part of a zoo collection? Are there institutions in the UK interested in breeding programs for asian newts? What is the purpose of breeding them? You said it was a conservation project? What's the conservation element?

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I shall try and answer most of your questions now Mark but using my phone so please bear with me Well the project is something I have to do for my course, in breeding a select few endangered species, which I have chosen 3 Caudata Species and 3 Anurans and I am hoping to breed them in a zoo collection if I can locate more as this is my specimen but would like to acquire more for breeding to put on loan lol
There is beginning to be a rise in popularity in zoos for Asiatic species (Chester Zoo for example has announced its Seven South East Asian Island Chain exhibit the other day - UK collections seem to be focusing on Malagasy and Asiatic species now). Well, regardless of species, Asian animals are mostly all under threat from things such as TCM, Food Delicacies, Pollution, Pet Trade and so on, this is no different from this species and subspecies. As you well know the C.ensicauda species is listed as Endangered by the IUCN red list of threatened species, and I have hardly if ever seen them in UK Zoological collections (I am talking about Asian Amphibians). I know these species are and have been bred in the Hobby but they dont appear to have any conservation in Zoos.

If i missed anything out I apologise and shall message you to edit my post to add more for you Mark!

In addition to Mark´s questions, you mentioned the locality of origin of the animal but it seemed to me there were possible doubts?

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Ahhhhh well I don't doubt the Locality Origin but I doubt the "Last Legal Import" thing a bit, just found it a little hard to imagine them being the last imported speciemen (legally) So I am interested to find out more about this subspecies and about their history etc, as this is new ground for me (I have keep Cynops in the past but not this species but the care aspect shall be very easy).

froggy said:

As a note, latex has been shown to be toxic to amphibians (at least larvae). If you use gloves, use Nitrile, powder free ones.

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Thank you Chris like I said above to Jan, I found out they were Non-Latex Free Gloves that are Powder Free however I am still interested to read the paper on this, its got me intrigued!

TylototritonGuy said:

I shall try and answer most of your questions now Mark but using my phone so please bear with me Well the project is something I have to do for my course, in breeding a select few endangered species, which I have chosen 3 Caudata Species and 3 Anurans and I am hoping to breed them in a zoo collection if I can locate more as this is my specimen but would like to acquire more for breeding to put on loan lol
There is beginning to be a rise in popularity in zoos for Asiatic species (Chester Zoo for example has announced its Seven South East Asian Island Chain exhibit the other day - UK collections seem to be focusing on Malagasy and Asiatic species now). Well, regardless of species, Asian animals are mostly all under threat from things such as TCM, Food Delicacies, Pollution, Pet Trade and so on, this is no different from this species and subspecies. As you well know the C.ensicauda species is listed as Endangered by the IUCN red list of threatened species, and I have hardly if ever seen them in UK Zoological collections (I am talking about Asian Amphibians). I know these species are and have been bred in the Hobby but they dont appear to have any conservation in Zoos.

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So, let me see if i got this straight, what you are saying is that you want to breed animals in conjunction with zoological collections? But what for? Building supply for zoos?
What´s the conservation aspect? From what you say i take it that breeding for reintroduction purposes is not the goal, so is this about representation on zoos to popularize species and raise consciousness about them?

Azhael said:

So, let me see if i got this straight, what you are saying is that you want to breed animals in conjunction with zoological collections? But what for? Building supply for zoos?
What´s the conservation aspect? From what you say i take it that breeding for reintroduction purposes is not the goal, so is this about representation on zoos to popularize species and raise consciousness about them?

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Ahhh so thats what you both meant about Conservation aspect! Right I understand now, it is for me to document them for my benefit (for my course obviously) and also to raise awareness to the general public about them, but at the same time increase the population in captivity, as professional collections (aka Zoological collections) don't appear to have Conservation Programmes for any Asiatic Amphibians. Reintroduction I gathered, would be near enough pointless wouldnt it?

Ambassador species idea. What course this Josh? Sounds much more interesting the projects we were allowed to do.