Echinotriton chinhaiensis

I was just wondering if anyone knew about the current situation with Echinotriton chinhaiensis? I noticed a thread from 2003 that mentioned that Mr. Feng Xie was studying them and also working with some American Zoos to see if they could start a captive breeding program. Does anyone know how to contact Mr. Xie? I have noticed that no zoos currently hold them.

Thank you for any information that can be offered.

Rachel

P.S. Sorry about the scientific name not being in italics but it kept giving me an error.

<font color="0000ff">Now it is in italics.</font>

(Message edited by ralf on February 09, 2007)

(Message edited by ralf on February 09, 2007)

Hi Rachel. Well, as a zookeeper, you might consider contacting your fellow zookeepers at the Detroit Zoo. They seem to have been working with both Tylototriton and Echinotriton (E. andersoni) in recent years and had at one point been planning to acquire some E. chinhaiensis. Also, you might inquire with Kevin Zippel, who was formerly amphibian curator at that zoo and is now an officer of the IUCN's Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, as he was involved in those plans. You can find his mail address by going to: http://www.cbsg.org/about/119688.php. And you can find a contact address for Feng Xie at the bottom of the AmphibiaWeb species account for E. chinhaiensis.

Regarding its status, aside from what that excellent AmphiaWeb account says, the only info I have is that a nature reserve has been proposed for the habitat of this endangered newt so that it has both on-site and off-site protection. I do seem to recall hearing of a dedicated breeding/research facility set up in Zhejiang Province, but I may be wrong about that and there may only be the Chengdu Institute of Biology's captive-breeding efforts in Sichuan Province as mentioned at AmphiaWeb.

As for the italics, you have to click the I button twice -- once before the word(s) to be italicized and once after

Thanks Tim,

I was planning on contacting Detroit but I have to get permission from my supervisors before doing so and I wanted to see if I could get as much info as possible before going forward with my idea of getting involved. I knew that they were hoping to get involved with breeding but as of yet have not obtained any individuals.

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me this update.

Sincerely

Rachel

No problem. I've been gathering info about this species myself (just out of interest without any expectation or hope of ever acquiring any). Most of it's in Chinese, however