Local | PANORAMA

North America

Balancing Act: Managing Native Plants and Grazing Horses on Assateague Island

Mina

Adabag

Oceania

Three Claps for Conservation Landowners Play a Critical Role in the Fight for Tree Kangaroos

Mina

Adabag

East Asia

Resisting Intruders: The Battle to Save Okinawa Rails from an Introduced Threat

Mina

Adabag

Restocking

Release of the captive-bred toads at the study sites

Photo by Leonardo Vignoli

Three captive-bred Apennine yellow-bellied toads just released at the study site

Photo by Leonardo Vignoli

Bioparco facility where the Apennine yellow-bellid toads were reared

Photo by Leonardo Vignoli

Since no population increase has been observed two years after the threat mitigation actions, in 2014 we launched a four-year restocking project aimed at increasing the population size.
The project involves the collection in the wild of a fraction (30-40%) of Bombina pachypus population at the egg stage, their development in captivity and the subsequent release of metamorphs in the same site of collection.

All the ex-situ management of toads was implemented at Fondazione Bioparco facilities where individuals were kept until the ventral coloration pattern is fully defined so that they can be photographically marked for future identification and demographic studies in the wild.

Overall, 67 young individuals were released (20 in 2014, 19 in 2015, 16 in 2016 and 12 in 2017).

Post-release monitoring revealed that the toad recapture rate was highly variable over the years. In 2018, we re-captured a total of 21 individuals: 10 released in 2014, two in 2015, four in 2016 and five in 2017. The pristine population remained stable (13 individuals) with few new animals recruited and some losses. At the end of 2018, a net increase of 21 individuals released plus some from natural recruitment allowed the original population size to double.

The production of individuals one year old from the egg stage requires adequate facilities and a high commitment of personnel.

Monitoring the success of restocking needs a multi-year project and adequate effort (personnel and economic).

The release of metamorph individuals close to sexual maturity allowed individual recognition by ventral coloration pattern and should have significantly decreased the mortality rate that is known to peak at the egg and larval stages.

Toads bred in captivity can be used for the restocking of declining populations of Bombina pachypus.
Restocking should be done by releasing individuals in distinct phases along a multi-year project to overcome possible failure due to stochastic or unpredictable events.

The identification of the true causes behind the high inter-annual variability in the individual recapture rate and the failure to recapture many released animals (e.g. death or dispersal) can be very difficult, even at the local scale and with a high sampling effort.

Implementation

Local

Threat Mitigation

Before any concrete conservation action that involve traslocation of individuals (with or without ex-situ reproduction) an assessment of the occurring threats and their mitigation/eradication is mandatory for the success of the actions.

Since the main threats observed for the species at the study site were the high risk of pond desiccation in the early stage of the breeding season (i.e., June) and alteration of the ponds by wild boars, two main conservation actions were carried out in 2012 to mitigate them:
- four additional pools at each site fed by perennial springs were constructed to extend the hydro period from March to October;
- each puddle was fenced to prevent wild boars from using them for drinking and bathing.

A thorough knowledge of the species biology and ecology is needed to exhaustively uncover and depict the effective and potential threats acting and impacting the conservation status of the target species.

The mitigation / eradication of the main threats that impact the conservation of the target populations may be insufficient to achieve a significant impact (i.e. a reversal of the negative trend) in the short / medium term. It is possible that mitigation actions must be coupled with concrete conservation interventions that involve the translocation of individuals to increase the size of populations in the short term. The possibility of not observing impacts from threat mitigation actions in the short term is more likely if the target species is long-lived and has long generation rates. In fact, Bombina pachypus is a long-lived species, being able to reach about 30 years of age.

Implementation

Local

Pre-action monitoring

Monitoring session at the pools

Photo by Leonardo Vignoli

Pre-action monitoring activity is needed to define the baseline and quantify the impact of the distinct tasks of the project on the conservation status of the targeted species. In our case, the two study populations were monitored by capture-mark-recapture method from 2005 to 2013. We assessed a population size of 18 individuals (nine per deme) that remained stable with only three new individuals entering the population in nine years of monitoring. Each site consisted of one or two small ephemeral pools where the toads spawned from late March to late September

Pre-action monitoring should be defined prior the begining of the project. Monitoring must consist of standardized methodologies (i.e. same effort and approach), thus enabling replicability along time and space, that allow a quantification of selected metric that in turn allows to quantify the impact of the concrete conservation actions

Our pre-action monitoring was performed by the same staff during the entire course of the of project. This means same effort and efficiency and reduces the inconsistencies among samplings and years.

Monitoring

Local

West and South Europe

Conservation of Apennine yellow-bellied toad

Leonardo

Vignoli

Pre-action monitoring

Threat Mitigation

Restocking

Collaborative and Comprehensive Training

WAB-Net brings together stakeholders from diverse sectors and backgrounds to participate in uniquely detailed and thorough capacity-building and hands-on trainings. Field teams consisting of ecologists, government officials representing health and environmental ministries, and students and academic faculty are trained to carry out research while keeping themselves and the bats safe. A bat ecologist will spend several weeks each year in the field teaching the team how to capture, handle, sample, and release bats with biosafety considerations woven throughout each step.

A bat ecologist familiar with the unique aspects of the taxonomic group and biosafety practices works in collaboration with regional project partners to design standardized field protocols and subsequently implements the field trainings in each country. This uniquely hands-on approach to training field teams ensures the standardization of field protocols across cultures and disciplines in the region.

WAB-Net serves as the central coordination point for these trainings across the Western Asia region. There is a wide diversity of stakeholders participating, including in their backgrounds and areas of expertise. WAB-Net facilitators learn from the individuals they’re training, creating more culturally relevant lessons. By bringing lessons from one country to another, WAB-Net can enable conversations and collaboration over areas of shared interest, furthering partnerships that would have otherwise been politically difficult to build.

One Health Proactive Approach

WAB-Net takes a One Health approach in conducting collaborative research and training programs in West Asia, bringing regional expertise that are otherwise siloed in sectors of human, animal, and environmental health. Samples taken from bats across the region are screened for known and novel coronaviruses; human behaviors that could present a spillover risk are identified. WAB-Net serves as the unifying point of virology, bat ecology, and public health initiatives in the region. By coordinating conversations between experts in diverse fields of study, opportunities for novel research questions, more comprehensive agendas, and better-informed policy recommendations are created and implemented.

EcoHealth Alliance, with experts on global One Health research and policy, serves as WAB-Net’s facilitators and instills a One Health lens on all of its work. Previous experience with bringing together experts from diverse fields and finding commonalities across topics enables them to effectively carry out multi-disciplinary endeavors in a politically volatile region.

As demonstrated by the COVID-19 global crisis, mitigation efforts after a spillover event occurs often are more costly to both public health and the global economies. A proactive approach to pandemic prevention is made possible through WAB-Net’s work of monitoring both potentially zoonotic viruses in bat populations and human behavior. WAB-Net’s focus on both research objectives and training efforts enhances biosafety throughout all steps of the research process. The collaborative nature of the One Health approach creates more comprehensive and effective recommendations for public health, conservation efforts, and disease management.

Crisis Prioritization

Throughout the first months of 2020, there was an overwhelming amount of confusion and stress surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. In the face of this drastically changing reality, the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group was able to come together quickly and efficiently to identify researchers’ needs, gather relevant information, and create an essential set of guidelines. A rapid mobilization of the global network of great ape specialists was able to translate the publication into multiple languages, disseminating this crucial tool to people working in the field across multiple regions.

The Primate Specialist Group’s active and participatory membership was key to their successful prioritization of work in the face of an unprecedented and deadly pandemic.

As the COVID-19 crisis swept the globe many people sought further purpose in their work. The members of the Primate Specialist Group were motivated by the sense of urgency gripping all walks of life and wanted to take action in a positive way. These guidelines were essential not only for people to safely continue field work, but also for the members looking to find meaning during a particularly bleak time.