Category: Category 2

Tesoros de Colombia, con la autorización de la Autoridad Nacional de Licencias Ambientales (ANLA), avanza en la fase de experimentación para la reproducción en cautiverio de este anfibio del género Andinobates, que se encuentra En Peligro Crítico por los daños ambientales que resiste su hábitat. Este sería el primer paso para lograr, a mediano plazo, la reintroducción de la rana en sus bosques y recuperar poco a poco sus poblaciones.

A comienzos del mes de octubre de 2023, el mundo conoció la Evaluación Mundial de Anfibios para la Lista Roja de Especies Amenazadas de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (UICN), la segunda publicación de su tipo que se redacta en los últimos 20 años.

El documento, publicado en la revista Nature, fue liderado por las organizaciones Re-Wild y Rainforest Trust. Participaron en su elaboración más de mil científicos de todo el mundo y reveló que 2873 especies en los cinco continentes (de un total aproximado de 8 mil existentes), viven bajo algún grado de amenaza. Esta cifra ubica a los anfibios como el grupo de vertebrados en mayor riesgo de extinción en el mundo, seguidos por los tiburones y rayas (37 por ciento), los mamíferos (27 por ciento) y los reptiles (21 por ciento).

Además de entregar muchas cifras y de explicar las causas de un declive angustioso, la investigación ubicó a Colombia como el país del planeta con la mayor cantidad de especies de anfibios en riesgo —320— de un total de ochocientas que habitan en el territorio.

Con el informe en sus manos, la UICN hizo un llamado a “aumentar masivamente” los esfuerzos por la conservación. Y sugirió una movilización de recursos importante para encontrar las especies desaparecidas o perdidas, y aumentar su protección.

Otra de las alternativas planteadas por la organización internacional se concentró en impulsar programas de cría en cautiverio a partir de ejemplares de las especies más afectadas, para reintroducir esos individuos en aquellos ecosistemas que han sido afectados por el cambio climático —con fenómenos como la erosión, las sequías y las alteraciones en la temperatura— o dañados y alterados por el avance de la agricultura y la ganadería, dos actividades que tienen, según lo analizado, el mayor peso en el declive de ranas, sapos, cecilias o salamandras.

Y precisamente esto último —esa cría en cautividad o ex situ— es lo que Tesoros de Colombia está tratando de consolidar con una de las tantas ranas colombianas que podrían desaparecer a corto plazo y que fueron incluidas en el informe global

Se trata de la Andinobates supata, también conocida como rana dorada, que habita en un pequeño reducto de bosque situado a 37 kilómetros de Bogotá, en el municipio de Supatá (Cundinamarca), localidad por la que el anfibio recibió su nombre científico. 

Sus bosques han sido talados

La especie fue encontrada hace unos 15 años, pero su descripción, que la llevó oficialmente a hacer parte de los registros de la biodiversidad colombiana, se concretó hasta el 2021. 

En su momento, el hallazgo de la rana fue muy celebrado. Sin embargo, al poco tiempo, la alegría dio paso a la inquietud, porque fueron apareciendo investigaciones que tuvieron en cuenta la situación de la especie y la catalogaron como En Peligro Crítico de extinción.

La Andinobates supata, tan pequeña como una almendra y adornada con tonos verdes, amarillos y dorados, se distribuye en un área muy restringida de no más de 5 kilómetros cuadrados, entre los 1800 y los 2000 metros de altitud, donde la actividad humana es alta. 

Más del 90% del bosque original donde le gusta refugiarse ha sido talado. Asimismo, las quebradas y ríos que circundan la vegetación reciben considerables descargas de agroquímicos, principalmente de la ganadería, aunque la agricultura también aporta a los daños. Estas actividades productivas no solo afectan a los individuos directamente, sino además acaban con bromelias y otras plantas donde la rana habita y logra reproducirse. 

Un hogar tan pequeño y rodeado de tantas amenazas hacen que su vulnerabilidad aumente día tras día.

La rana también es atacada por el tráfico ilegal de fauna, liderado por personas que se encargan de extraer ilegalmente ejemplares del medio natural, para venderlos y llevarlos al exterior.

Freno al tráfico y reintroducción de ejemplares

Para mitigar la situación, se han propuesto campañas de educación ambiental para rescatar a la rana dorada. Incluso, en Supatá, la comunidad ha comenzado a conocerla y cuidarla como un símbolo local, al punto de que fue construido un monumento en su honor en el parque principal del municipio y anualmente se hace un festival para resaltar su existencia apoyado por varias instituciones públicas y organismos privados. (Ver Figura 1)

Figura 1. Póster del Festival de la rana de Supatá 2023

Pero, Tesoros de Colombia está trabajando en la consolidación de un aporte más científico y sostenible. Hoy, con el permiso de la Autoridad Nacional de Licencias Ambientales (ANLA) y de la Corporación Autónoma Regional de Cundinamarca (CAR), avanza en una fase de experimentación para perfeccionar la reproducción de la rana bajo cuidado profesional y experto, a partir de unos pocos ejemplares, llamados parentales, que fueron legalmente obtenidos de la vida silvestre.

A partir de este trabajo, y cuando el nacimiento de las crías sea perfeccionado, Tesoros de Colombia haría dos labores encaminadas a su conservación: de una parte y buscando disminuir la presión sobre las poblaciones naturales, exportaría a algunos de esos individuos de la rana dorada, frenando el tráfico ilegal de la especie al sustituir la demanda.

Esto último, que es una fase comercial que también debe ser autorizada por la ANLA, se transformaría en una oferta legal, obtenida con sostenibilidad, que produce un efecto dominó a favor del anfibio: porque se reduce el precio que se paga en el exterior por cada ejemplar, los acuaristas o coleccionistas pueden obtener individuos sanos y adaptados desde su nacimiento al cuidado humano sin acudir al mercado negro y el ‘negocio’ de quienes esperan traficarla pierde fuerza, en la medida en que comienza a existir una oferta autorizada que le cierra la puerta al tráfico y lo deja sin sustento. 

Incluso, como al exterior llegan parejas (hembra y macho), no se descarta que al poco tiempo las mismas entidades o coleccionistas puedan lograr sus propios procesos de reproducción.

Obviamente, todo lo anterior es una actividad que genera recursos económicos, necesarios para mantener el funcionamiento de las instalaciones donde se crían los anfibios. Y se convierte en una alternativa laboral que diversifica la economía y genera empleos. 

Esto incluye un paso adicional que es donde la rana puede obtener un beneficio definitivo: por liderar este proceso de reproducción, Tesoros de Colombia debe realizar, en el lugar en donde se hicieron las primeras colectas —o en otras zonas de Supatá previamente acordadas con las comunidades y la CAR—, un repoblamiento de ejemplares de la rana dorada, que podrían ser la base para una recuperación a largo plazo. 

De alguna manera, este paso a paso, que es a su vez un proyecto de conservación y de generación de conocimiento, podría explicarse diciendo que el Estado colombiano le confía, a manera de préstamo, una serie de especies a un grupo de expertos para que ellos las reproduzcan y no se extingan, una práctica usual en muchos países del mundo e incluso avalada por la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre Comercio y Desarrollo (UNCTAD, por sus siglas en inglés), órgano que fomenta las transacciones y las inversiones en flora y fauna en países en desarrollo, incluidas aquellas que tienen que ver con recursos genéticos, asegurando al mismo tiempo su cuidado y mejoramiento a largo plazo.

Tesoros de Colombia ya cumple con todas las fases descritas anteriormente —reproducción, comercio y apoyo a las especies en el terreno— con diez especies de ranas colombianas, todas en situación de amenaza, entre las que aparecen Dendrobates truncatus, Dendrobates terribilis, Oophaga histrionica y Oophaga lehmanni.  Y ahora está siendo respaldada por la organización Active Conservation Alliance (ACA), con sede en Estados Unidos, interesada en concretar proyectos dirigidos a crear zonas de conservación privadas, para la preservación de la Andinobates supata y de otras especies de anfibios colombianos.   

Dice Iván Lozano, conservacionista y zootecnista de la Universidad de la Salle, que todo ese esfuerzo científico debería ser complementado por iniciativas urgentes de educación ambiental y restauración de áreas estratégicas que permitan que la rana de Supatá comience a recuperar su hogar natural.

Tesoros de Colombia, with the authorization of the National Authority of Environmental Licenses (ANLA), is advancing in the experimentation phase for captive breeding of this amphibian of the genus Andinobates, which is critically endangered due to the environmental damage its habitat endures. This would be the first step to achieve, in the medium term, the reintroduction of the frog into its forests and gradually recover its populations.

Tesoros de Colombia, with the authorization of the National Authority of Environmental Licenses (ANLA), is advancing in the experimentation phase for captive breeding of this amphibian of the genus Andinobates, which is critically endangered due to the environmental damage its habitat endures. This would be the first step to achieve, in the medium term, the reintroduction of the frog into its forests and gradually recover its populations.

At the beginning of October 2023, the world learned about the Global Amphibian Assessment for the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the second publication of its kind drafted in the last 20 years.

The document, published in the journal Nature, was led by the organizations Re-Wild and Rainforest Trust. More than a thousand scientists from around the world participated in its preparation, revealing that 2873 species on five continents (out of an approximate total of 8,000 existing ones) live under some degree of threat. This figure places amphibians as the vertebrate group most at risk of extinction in the world, followed by sharks and rays (37 percent), mammals (27 percent), and reptiles (21 percent).

In addition to providing many figures and explaining the causes of a distressing decline, the research placed Colombia as the country on the planet with the highest number of amphibian species at risk—320—out of a total of eight hundred inhabiting the territory.

With the report in hand, the IUCN called for a “massive increase” in conservation efforts. And it suggested a significant mobilization of resources to find missing or lost species and increase their protection.

Another alternative proposed by the international organization focused on promoting captive breeding programs from specimens of the most affected species to reintroduce those individuals into ecosystems affected by climate change—with phenomena such as erosion, droughts, and temperature alterations—or damaged and altered by the advance of agriculture and livestock farming, two activities that, according to the analysis, weigh heavily on the decline of frogs, toads, caecilians, or salamanders.

And precisely this latter—this captive breeding or ex situ—is what Tesoros de Colombia is trying to consolidate with one of the many Colombian frogs that could disappear in the short term and that were included in the global report.

It is the Andinobates supata, also known as the golden frog, which inhabits a small forest remnant located 37 kilometers from Bogotá, in the municipality of Supatá (Cundinamarca), the locality for which the amphibian received its scientific name. 

Its forests have been cleared.

The species was found about 15 years ago, but its description, which officially led it to be part of the records of Colombian biodiversity, was only finalized in 2021.

At the time, the discovery of the frog was widely celebrated. However, shortly thereafter, joy gave way to concern, as research began to emerge that took into account the species’ situation and classified it as Critically Endangered.

The Andinobates supata, as small as an almond and adorned with green, yellow, and golden tones, is distributed in a very restricted area of ​​no more than 5 square kilometers, between 1800 and 2000 meters above sea level, where human activity is high.

More than 90% of the original forest where it likes to take refuge has been cleared. Likewise, the streams and rivers surrounding the vegetation receive considerable discharges of agrochemicals, mainly from livestock farming, although agriculture also contributes to the damage. These productive activities not only affect individuals directly but also end bromeliads and other plants where the frog lives and manages to reproduce. Such a small home and surrounded by so many threats make its vulnerability increase day by day.

The frog is also attacked by illegal wildlife trafficking, led by people who illegally extract specimens from the natural environment to sell them and take them abroad.

Halt to trafficking and reintroduction of specimens

o mitigate the situation, environmental education campaigns have been proposed to rescue the golden frog. Even in Supatá, the community has begun to get to know and care for it as a local symbol, to the point that a monument was built in its honor in the main park of the municipality, and an annual festival is held to highlight its existence supported by various public institutions and private organizations. (See Figure 1)

Figura 1. Póster del Festival de la rana de Supatá 2023

But, Tesoros de Colombia is working on consolidating a more scientific and sustainable contribution. Today, with the permission of the National Authority of Environmental Licenses (ANLA) and the Autonomous Regional Corporation of Cundinamarca (CAR), it is advancing in an experimentation phase to perfect the frog’s reproduction under professional and expert care, starting from a few specimens, called parental, which were legally obtained from the wild.

From this work, and when the birth of the offspring is perfected, Tesoros de Colombia would carry out two tasks aimed at their conservation: on the one hand, seeking to reduce pressure on natural populations, it would export some of those golden frog individuals, halting the illegal trafficking of the species by replacing demand.

This latter, which is a commercial phase that must also be authorized by the ANLA, would transform into a legal offer, obtained sustainably, which produces a domino effect in favor of the amphibian: because the price paid abroad for each individual is reduced, aquarium owners or collectors can obtain healthy individuals adapted to human care from birth without resorting to the black market, and the ‘business’ of those hoping to traffic it loses strength, as there begins to be an authorized supply that closes the door to trafficking and leaves it without sustenance.

Even, since pairs (female and male) arrive abroad, it is not ruled out that shortly thereafter the same entities or collectors may achieve their own breeding processes.

Obviously, all of the above is an activity that generates economic resources, necessary to maintain the operation of the facilities where amphibians are bred. And it becomes a job alternative that diversifies the economy and generates employment.

This includes an additional step where the frog can obtain a definitive benefit: by leading this reproduction process, Tesoros de Colombia must carry out, in the place where the first collections were made—or in other areas of Supatá previously agreed upon with the communities and CAR—a repopulation of golden frog specimens, which could be the basis for long-term recovery.

In a way, this step-by-step process, which is at the same time a conservation and knowledge generation project, could be explained by saying that the Colombian state entrusts, by way of a loan, a series of species to a group of experts so that they can reproduce them and prevent them from becoming extinct, a practice usual in many countries worldwide and even endorsed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), an organ that promotes transactions and investments in flora and fauna in developing countries, including those related to genetic resources, ensuring their care and long-term improvement at the same time.

Tesoros de Colombia already fulfills all the phases described above—reproduction, trade, and support for species in the field—with ten species of Colombian frogs, all in threatened situations, including Dendrobates truncatus, Dendrobates terribilis, Oophaga histrionica, and Oophaga lehmanni. And now it is being supported by the Active Conservation Alliance (ACA), based in the United States, interested in implementing projects aimed at

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Cooming Soon

Large numbers of brightly coloured poison dart frogs are smuggled around the world, but can a project that is hand-rearing the endangered amphibians help to save them?

I It looked like an ordinary piece of luggage filled with clothes. Then police inspectors at Bogóta’s El Dorado International Airport noticed something strange at the bottom of the bag – security X-rays revealed a curious dark cluster amid the clothes.

The mysterious clump turned out to be hundreds of black photographic film canisters. But when officials opened the canisters, they were found not to contain any film.

Packed inside were 424 critically-endangered frogs, each with a black market value of up to $2,000 (£1,479). Some had electric yellow and black stripes, others were milky green with splodges of neon orange, a few lay lifeless; all were highly poisonous.

According to police, the species had been poached from the Chocó and Valle del Cauca regions of the Colombian Pacific and were on their way to Germany.

But this incident on 13 April 2019 was merely part of an ongoing problem with wildlife smuggling in Colombia, which has around 850 species of amphibians and the world’s second highest diversity of frogs.

Breeding poison dart frogs in captivity can be difficult and laborious but experts at Tesoros de Colombia hope it can replace the illegal pet trade (Credit: Tesoros de Colombia)

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Collectors in Europe and the United States are particularly drawn to poison dart frogs, one of the most toxic animals on the planet. Each can produce enough poison to kill 10 people, but their lurid, technicolour skin that is supposed to warn off predators also makes them highly prized. Nearly 200 amphibian species in Colombia, the vast majority of which are frogs, are classified as endangered or critically endangered in 2020, according researchers at the Humboldt Institute in Germany.

But one pioneering project is attempting to help Colombia’s endangered wild frogs with an unusual approach – legal breeding. Initially founded in 2005, Tesoros de Colombia is the country’s first and only commercial breeding operation, offering legitimate, captive-bred specimens at lower prices than those snatched by traffickers from Colombia’s jungles.

“To save a species you have to apply practical solutions to the threats,” says founder Iván Lozano, a self-funded frog enthusiast who studied at the UK’s Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and later worked at the Bogotá Wildlife Rescue Centre. “I learned that over time.”

Due to lengthy bureaucratic procedures, it wasn’t until November 2011 that Tesoros was granted a permit to legally export one native species, the yellow-striped poison frog (Dendrobates truncatus). By 2015, it gained permits for several others such as the green and black poison frog (D. auratus), the Kokoe poison frog (Phyllobates aurotaenia), and the famed golden poison frog (P. terribilis). Now, Lozano breeds seven species of poisonous frogs, delivering them mostly to the United States and Europe but also Asia.

The most sought-after is Colombia’s Oophaga frog, a so-called “obligate egg-feeder”, whose tadpoles must be fed individual unfertilised eggs by hand, replicating the behaviour of mother frogs in the wild. “It is extremely labour-intensive, but these are also the most threatened and desired species,” explains Lozano.

The demand for those species that are difficult to breed in captivity is very high – Sandra Flechas

His efforts to replace illegally captured frogs have made him famous among American collectors, who – in part thanks to Lozano – are increasingly seeking legally-traded, eco-friendly animals. Production of these Oophaga specimens by Tesoros has risen from 30 to 150 a year, but supply is still unable to meet demand.

Robert Zahradnik, a 37-year-old collector based in Colorado, believes legal breeding has forced many collectors to change their mindsets. “There is now peer pressure to buy sustainable frogs,” he says. “Any posting of questionable frogs on social media is met with resistance [by the community] in the form of comments calling out the origins. Meanwhile, sustainable frogs from Tesoros are considered something to be proud of.”

Parts of the conservation community, however, have been hesitant to fully endorse projects that seek to protect endangered animals through captive breeding. In the murky case of tiger farms across Asia, instead lowering prices and reducing demand for illegally collected animals, they spurred demand for both captive-bred and wild-caught animals. But in the case of Tesoros, the data appears to confirm Zahradnik’s claims.

A significant proportion – and in some cases 100% – of important frog species imported to the US between 2014 and 2017 were legally-bred, according to a recent study. While those figures are limited, due to uncertainty over smuggling figures, the author believes it is a strong case for legally-bred wildlife. “This isn’t the #MeToo of plants and animals, but there are serious issues that need to be discussed,” says Justin Yeager, who wrote the report. “Biocommerce isn’t perfect. You need regular buyers to stay financially sustainable, and that demands a ‘collector’ mentality. However, it’s an opportunity to change the culture of consumption.”

The stigma associated with illegally traded poison dart frogs means many collectors actively seek out captive bred animals (Credit: Anton Sorokin/Alamy)

But Sandra Flechas, who works for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Amphibian Specialist Group in Colombia, says that although legal breeding has proved to be an “efficient mechanism” for reducing the illegal traffic, the output isn’t yet enough. “The demand for those species that are difficult to breed in captivity is very high and there are not enough centres that reach those levels of production,” she says.

According to a study published in 2019, 80,000 Lehmann’s poison frogs have been poached in the past four decades. The IUCN lists the species as “critically endangered” with the population decreasing. “The problem is still very, very serious,” says Pablo Palacios Rodriguez, one of the authors of the report and a herpetologist at the University of the Andes, Colombia. “The socio-economic problems of the region mean traffickers can pay locals to help them. We need to offer communities alternatives through ecotourism and conservation programs.”

Yet the main challenge faced by Tesoros is financial viability. The operation faces fees for laboratory space, permits, lawyers, inspections, and government lobbying. Lozano says he racked up $500,000 (£381,236) debt in the process of being granted permits, and only began paying himself a salary in 2018. But Tesoros expects to break even in 2022.

We believe that we can save some of these species from extinction – Iván Lozano

By proving that it is possible to make a profit from legal trade, Lozano hopes to deal the $7-23bn illegal global wildlife trade a bodyblow. For now, based in a modest farmhouse in the state of Cudinamarca surrounded by 5.5 hectares of misty rainforest, the team of eight at Tesoros continue to carefully breed frogs in their bid to end the trafficking of Colombian wildlife. 

As Lozano is talking, a thick styrofoam package is being prepared for a 72-hour trip to Japan by assistants wearing blue gloves. Dozens of luminous frogs, each accompanied by a serial number, are placed into plastic pots with damp moss, fresh plant clippings as well as smoothed air holes and a heating pad to reduce sudden changes in temperature during the journey.

“We believe that we can save some of these species from extinction,” says Lozano. “One frog at a time.”

—

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