Dear FrogLoggers,

The FrogLog family is continuing to grow! Please join me in welcoming the newest member of our Editorial team: Lindsay Renick Mayer. Lindsay has been an amphibian fanatic from a young age, learning to love our little friends from her home in Wisconsin. She has worked for The Nature Conservancy and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, where she led the communications efforts for the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project and is particularly passionate about using colorful stories to inspire conservation action.

FrogLog itself is also evolving, with Lindsay, Craig, Laurence and myself working hard throughout the upcoming months to develop its new look and expanded focus.

Inside the pages of this edition you will learn how research on microhabitat differentiation between two treefrog species may actually reveal the cause of population declines in the Endangered Hyla suweonensis in Korea. You can also read about how a multi-institutional effort stopped the construction of a hydroelectric power plant that threatened the Critically Endangered Red-belly toad in Brazil. And you can even learn how to use a simple tool called a story map to increase awareness and promote amphibian conservation efforts.

As the ASA continues to drive forward, it is scaling up funding for amphibian conservation, research and education, including the recent launch of the new ASA Seed Grant program. Seed Grants are normally provided in amounts ranging from USD $500-$1,000 and are designed to help kick start projects or allow teams to try new innovative approaches to address amphibian conservation, research and education challenges. We accept and review Seed Grants all year, however grants are announced only four times a year in FrogLog. As such, we are excited to announce the winners of the first round of ASA Seed Grants on page 4 and another open call for Seed Grant applications. Full details and an online application form can be found on www.amphibians.org/seedgrants.

The ASA is also spearheading response to combat the spread of the chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, Bd) and ensure a future for the frogs of Madagascar is the ASA. The strategy involves pursuing the most promising techniques for mitigating the fungus in the wild. Probiotic disease mitigation for wildlife is a new conservation frontier and amphibians are at the leading edge of this novel research. Don’t miss the update on progress so far found on page 7.

But for let’s now turn the page and hop right in!

Candace M. Hansen-Hendrikx
Editor-in-Chief

Contents

3 Editorial

NEWS FROM THE AMPHIBIAN COMMUNITY

4 The Alliance—Scaling up Funding for Amphibian Conservation, Research and Education

7 Disease Mitigation Update

7 Leapfrog Conservation Fund

8 Announcing the Creation of the Chamicero de Perijá Nature Reserve, Colombia

9 Book Review: In Search of Lost Frogs, by Robin Moore

11 Amphibian Survival Alliance Q&A With Durrel Wildlife Conservation Trust

13 Fauna & Flora International Joins the Amphibian Survival Alliance

14 The ASA Jumps on Board #GivingTuesday to Raise Support for Amphibians

15 Fabled Frog Soap Joins the World’s Largest Partnership for Amphibian Conservation

16 II Simpósio Gaúcho de Herpetologia:  An Integrative Approach to Address the Challenges of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation in Southern South America

18 The Times they are a-Changing: How a Multi-Institutional Effort Stopped the Construction of a Hydroelectric Power Plant that Threatened a Critically Endangered Red-Belly Toad in Southern Brazil

22 Frog Communities in Fire-Disturbed Forests of the Peruvian Amazon

26 Using Story Maps to Increase Awareness and Promote Conservation

27 Giants in the Anthropocene Part Two of Two: Hell-Bent on Surviving

29 The Salamanders of Ontario

31 Herpetological Information Center: A Bibliographic Collection to Strengthen Research in the Mexican Axolotl

NEWS FROM ASIA, RUSSIA AND OCEANIA

46 Protecting the Lower Kinabatangan Floodplains, Borneo

47 Update From the Mainland Southeast Asia Amphibian Red List Authority (RLA) Team

48 Research on Microhabitat Differentiation between Two Treefrog Species May Reveal the Cause of Population Decline in the Endangered Hyla suweonensis in Korea

51 Evaluating the Reliability of Diagnostic Methods for Chytridiomycosis

53 In the Spotlight: Yellow Bush Frog

54 Frogging: Where Researchers, Students and Photographers Get Together

 

Hot off the press: FrogLog 112 is now online!

You can read/download it here: http://www.amphibians.org/froglog/fl112