Captive Breeding and Reintroduction of Globally Threatened Species
摘要
The captive breeding and the reintroduction of threatened species are among the most challenging conservation interventions. To date, 23 globally threatened, endangered, and at-risk anuran species have been captive-bred and reintroduced. Of these 23 anuran species, 5 are tropical. Based on meta-analyses conducted since the late 1980s, translocation success of amphibians and herpetofauna is 14% lower on average than translocation success for mammals, birds, and combined taxa. This is very likely a result of the emergence of chytridiomycosis and its interaction with other risk factors including habitat loss, climate change, toxic compounds, and invasive species. Previous meta-analyses of terrestrial vertebrate taxa have also revealed that translocation success for many taxa is higher among (1) large than small populations; (2) wild-sourced than captive-bred populations; (3) populations translocated to the core of their historic range; (4) populations translocated to sites where habitat is good to excellent; and (5) soft than hard releases. This book describes the species recovery program that was designed and implemented to conserve the Kihansi Spray Toad Nectophrynoides asperginis an Afrotropical and extinct-in-the-wild species.