Peru
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Project no. 1 (Environment)
The following posting is from Jan. C. Post a senior ecologist with the World Bank.
POISON DART FROG RANCHING TO PROTECT THE RAINFOREST
Background.
The tragedy of the remaining wild places on our planet is the fact that they do not, in general, provide enough income to the people living in and around them so they are converted in order to provide a readily available, usually temporary, income. Poor people need to take care of their immediate needs and can often not afford to take a long term view. In the rainforests, this results in shifting cultivation that ultimately leaves a devastated landscape behind. Therefore, conservationists have desperately been searching for ways in which an income can be generated from the jungle without destroying it.
Recently, an innovative way to derive an income from the forest has been devised based upon some of its least known and most elusive creatures: Poison Dart Frogs. These frogs, of which there are hundreds of different species and varieties, live throughout tropical Central and South America. Most of them are spectacularly colored, as a warning sign that they are poisonous. Some of these frogs contain enough poison to kill six people.
They synthesize their poison from chemicals in their food, consisting of a variety of insects and ants. If they are kept in captivity and fed a diet lacking the necessary variety they loose their capacity to produce poisons.
In captivity, their bright colors, very interesting diurnal activities and behavior, and the fact that they are not poisonous anymore, make them eminently suitable for the more specialized, frog keeping terrarium hobbyist. There is, therefore, a lively trade in these frogs. They fetch a high price in foreign markets, mainly in the USA, Europe and Japan.
Many species live high up in trees. Since there are no ponds to breed, they face a problem in reproduction. Unlike most other frogs, they lay only a few eggs that are glued to leaves. The males guard the eggs. When the eggs risk drying out, the male frogs water them. Then, when they hatch, the males put the tadpoles on their back and carry them to little water bodies; usually in tree trunks or bromeliads. They never descend to the ground because that is a dangerous place for small frogs to be.
The male then deposits the tadpoles one by one into separate water bodies as the tadpoles of many species are cannibalistic. Then the tadpoles face a problem: they are in rain water that is practically sterile and devoid of food. And then something very curious happens: the parents start to feed the tadpoles! First the male goes back to his mate because he has to show her where he put the tadpoles. He starts calling and performs a picturesque little dance, not unlike bees that have found a new source of food, and, then, with his female in tow the male hops towards the tadpole. He jumps in and out of the water, showing the female the exact location of the tadpole. Then, the female lowers her behind into the water. The tadpole nibbles her behind. This triggers a Pavlovian reaction causing her to lay an unfertilized egg to feed her offspring. This continues until the tadpole metamorphoses after which there is no more nibbling, and no more unfertilized egg laying. Then the male is allowed to fertilize the new batch of eggs after which the whole cycle starts anew.
As there is not much standing water in the canopy, it is not surprising that the number of suitable breeding sites determines how many little ones can be and will be raised. So if one artificially increases the number of suitable breeding sites by putting little plastic containers of water in the canopy, one can increase the number of tadpoles. If these tadpoles are then harvested and raised artificially, one can actually harvest tadpoles without harming the population. All one does in the end is raising tadpoles from eggs that would otherwise been used as food.
The tadpoles of several species of frogs feed on larvae from mosquitoes that cause Dengue fever and malaria and are, therefore, very beneficial in controlling the incidence of these diseases.
A chemical has been isolated from the poisonous skin of one species that appears to be six times more potent as a pain killer than morphine and is not addictive.
There are most probably many more useful compounds to be discovered from the skins of PDFs, as is the case with many other sources of toxic compounds found in nature.
A pioneer in the discovery of the breeding behavior and ecology of PDFs is Rainer Schulte, a German biologist who has been living in Peru for 15 years. He has devoted his life to the study and conservation of PDFs. In doing so, he has developed various breeding techniques (the different species have different strategies for reproduction) and organized the inhabitants of tracts of rainforest they inhabit to protect their habitat. This has, at least temporarily, held off destruction by the local people. The human inhabitants have agreed not to cut down the forest if they can make an income from the sustainable breeding/ranching of PDFs.
Rainer is trying to set up a system for the sustainable production of PDF’s for export. The income from such export would pay for the protection of tracts of forest. The World Bank is interested in helping him, in part because his system can be replicated throughout much of the tropical Americas. And there is an additional benefit: Some species that are only found in a small area (local endemics) have been driven to the brink of extinction through illegal collection. All PDFs are on the list of CITES, the Convention on Trace in Endangered Species, which means an export license is needed to allow their export. Such a license can, in general, be obtained if it can be shown that the animals are bred in captivity.
In the wild, PDFs are very hard to find, except during the mating season when the males are calling. This means that PDFs caught in the wild are almost exclusively adults. If a country adopts the policy that PDFs can only be exported as juveniles, then control of the illegal trade becomes much easier. At the same time, a sustainable supply of PDFs will drive prices down and make illegal trade less attractive.
Apart from habitat destruction and illegal collection, there appeared recently another grave threat to frogs, an epidemic of a fungus that has already wiped out several species and is now wreaking havoc amongst frogs in many places. It is called the Cythrid fungus and the establishment of disease free captive populations may save entire species from extinction.
Film Proposal.
The above story line lends itself eminently to the production of an exciting, colorful, and intriguing film. It would be shot primarily in Peru which has the largest number of PDF species and where a small scale breeding facility already exists.
Opening with the breeding behavior, care and guarding of the eggs, transportation of the tadpoles and parental care of the various PDF’s, some of which has never been filmed, the film would take the viewer to spectacular sites. These would include the Condor Mountains of Peru where a recently discovered species, Dendrobates mysteriosus clings precariously to a vertical cliff face covered in bromeliads. That is the only piece of their habitat left after local campesinos burned down the forest for cattle ranching. Then one would see local farmers sustainably raising tadpoles and harvesting them from the artificial containers in which they are raised. For the tadpoles of certain species that are hard to raise, “foster parents”, frogs of a different species that is easier to breed and keep are used. This is a novel technique pioneered by Rainer.
Footage of highly photogenic Indians, now a vanishing group, and their interesting practice of using these frogs for the production of a poison into which to dip the tips of arrows would then take us to the screening of the various poisons for useful compounds by the pharmaceutical industry.
Throughout the film, Rainer'slonely crusade to save the forest and, in particular, the PDFs from extinction, would be documented. The work in trees would capture the viewers'; imagination as we encounter poisonous snakes, fiery ants, scorpions, wasps and all sorts of other animals with which the PDFs share their canopy ecosystem.
The pioneering work regarding diagnosis and quarantine to find a solution to the devastating effects of the Cythrid fungus will also be documented.
The film would then take us to the dedicated hobbyist in the developed world who, with great care, creates a mini rainforest in his home where he keeps and breeds PDFs, which for many is the only way to enjoy the wonders of the rainforest first hand.
The following posting is from Jan. C. Post a senior ecologist with the World Bank.
POISON DART FROG RANCHING TO PROTECT THE RAINFOREST
Background.
The tragedy of the remaining wild places on our planet is the fact that they do not, in general, provide enough income to the people living in and around them so they are converted in order to provide a readily available, usually temporary, income. Poor people need to take care of their immediate needs and can often not afford to take a long term view. In the rainforests, this results in shifting cultivation that ultimately leaves a devastated landscape behind. Therefore, conservationists have desperately been searching for ways in which an income can be generated from the jungle without destroying it.
Recently, an innovative way to derive an income from the forest has been devised based upon some of its least known and most elusive creatures: Poison Dart Frogs. These frogs, of which there are hundreds of different species and varieties, live throughout tropical Central and South America. Most of them are spectacularly colored, as a warning sign that they are poisonous. Some of these frogs contain enough poison to kill six people.
They synthesize their poison from chemicals in their food, consisting of a variety of insects and ants. If they are kept in captivity and fed a diet lacking the necessary variety they loose their capacity to produce poisons.
In captivity, their bright colors, very interesting diurnal activities and behavior, and the fact that they are not poisonous anymore, make them eminently suitable for the more specialized, frog keeping terrarium hobbyist. There is, therefore, a lively trade in these frogs. They fetch a high price in foreign markets, mainly in the USA, Europe and Japan.
Many species live high up in trees. Since there are no ponds to breed, they face a problem in reproduction. Unlike most other frogs, they lay only a few eggs that are glued to leaves. The males guard the eggs. When the eggs risk drying out, the male frogs water them. Then, when they hatch, the males put the tadpoles on their back and carry them to little water bodies; usually in tree trunks or bromeliads. They never descend to the ground because that is a dangerous place for small frogs to be.
The male then deposits the tadpoles one by one into separate water bodies as the tadpoles of many species are cannibalistic. Then the tadpoles face a problem: they are in rain water that is practically sterile and devoid of food. And then something very curious happens: the parents start to feed the tadpoles! First the male goes back to his mate because he has to show her where he put the tadpoles. He starts calling and performs a picturesque little dance, not unlike bees that have found a new source of food, and, then, with his female in tow the male hops towards the tadpole. He jumps in and out of the water, showing the female the exact location of the tadpole. Then, the female lowers her behind into the water. The tadpole nibbles her behind. This triggers a Pavlovian reaction causing her to lay an unfertilized egg to feed her offspring. This continues until the tadpole metamorphoses after which there is no more nibbling, and no more unfertilized egg laying. Then the male is allowed to fertilize the new batch of eggs after which the whole cycle starts anew.
As there is not much standing water in the canopy, it is not surprising that the number of suitable breeding sites determines how many little ones can be and will be raised. So if one artificially increases the number of suitable breeding sites by putting little plastic containers of water in the canopy, one can increase the number of tadpoles. If these tadpoles are then harvested and raised artificially, one can actually harvest tadpoles without harming the population. All one does in the end is raising tadpoles from eggs that would otherwise been used as food.
The tadpoles of several species of frogs feed on larvae from mosquitoes that cause Dengue fever and malaria and are, therefore, very beneficial in controlling the incidence of these diseases.
A chemical has been isolated from the poisonous skin of one species that appears to be six times more potent as a pain killer than morphine and is not addictive.
There are most probably many more useful compounds to be discovered from the skins of PDFs, as is the case with many other sources of toxic compounds found in nature.
A pioneer in the discovery of the breeding behavior and ecology of PDFs is Rainer Schulte, a German biologist who has been living in Peru for 15 years. He has devoted his life to the study and conservation of PDFs. In doing so, he has developed various breeding techniques (the different species have different strategies for reproduction) and organized the inhabitants of tracts of rainforest they inhabit to protect their habitat. This has, at least temporarily, held off destruction by the local people. The human inhabitants have agreed not to cut down the forest if they can make an income from the sustainable breeding/ranching of PDFs.
Rainer is trying to set up a system for the sustainable production of PDF’s for export. The income from such export would pay for the protection of tracts of forest. The World Bank is interested in helping him, in part because his system can be replicated throughout much of the tropical Americas. And there is an additional benefit: Some species that are only found in a small area (local endemics) have been driven to the brink of extinction through illegal collection. All PDFs are on the list of CITES, the Convention on Trace in Endangered Species, which means an export license is needed to allow their export. Such a license can, in general, be obtained if it can be shown that the animals are bred in captivity.
In the wild, PDFs are very hard to find, except during the mating season when the males are calling. This means that PDFs caught in the wild are almost exclusively adults. If a country adopts the policy that PDFs can only be exported as juveniles, then control of the illegal trade becomes much easier. At the same time, a sustainable supply of PDFs will drive prices down and make illegal trade less attractive.
Apart from habitat destruction and illegal collection, there appeared recently another grave threat to frogs, an epidemic of a fungus that has already wiped out several species and is now wreaking havoc amongst frogs in many places. It is called the Cythrid fungus and the establishment of disease free captive populations may save entire species from extinction.
Film Proposal.
The above story line lends itself eminently to the production of an exciting, colorful, and intriguing film. It would be shot primarily in Peru which has the largest number of PDF species and where a small scale breeding facility already exists.
Opening with the breeding behavior, care and guarding of the eggs, transportation of the tadpoles and parental care of the various PDF’s, some of which has never been filmed, the film would take the viewer to spectacular sites. These would include the Condor Mountains of Peru where a recently discovered species, Dendrobates mysteriosus clings precariously to a vertical cliff face covered in bromeliads. That is the only piece of their habitat left after local campesinos burned down the forest for cattle ranching. Then one would see local farmers sustainably raising tadpoles and harvesting them from the artificial containers in which they are raised. For the tadpoles of certain species that are hard to raise, “foster parents”, frogs of a different species that is easier to breed and keep are used. This is a novel technique pioneered by Rainer.
Footage of highly photogenic Indians, now a vanishing group, and their interesting practice of using these frogs for the production of a poison into which to dip the tips of arrows would then take us to the screening of the various poisons for useful compounds by the pharmaceutical industry.
Throughout the film, Rainer'slonely crusade to save the forest and, in particular, the PDFs from extinction, would be documented. The work in trees would capture the viewers'; imagination as we encounter poisonous snakes, fiery ants, scorpions, wasps and all sorts of other animals with which the PDFs share their canopy ecosystem.
The pioneering work regarding diagnosis and quarantine to find a solution to the devastating effects of the Cythrid fungus will also be documented.
The film would then take us to the dedicated hobbyist in the developed world who, with great care, creates a mini rainforest in his home where he keeps and breeds PDFs, which for many is the only way to enjoy the wonders of the rainforest first hand.
