Caecilians: Conservation

Summary: Even though we don’t know much about caecilians they still need our help. Join Kiersten as she talks about what threats caecilians face and how we can help.

 

For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

 

Show Notes: 

IUCN Red List: www.iucnredlist.org

“Fatal fungus found in third major amphibian group, caecilians,” by Natural History Museum, Phys Org; phys.org/news/2013-05-fatal-fungus-major-amphibian-group.html

Chytridiomycosis: Cornell Wildlife Health Lab: cwhl.vet.cornell.edu

Conservation Organizations:

IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group: www.iucn-amphibians.org

Amphibian Ark: www.amphibianark.org

Save the Frogs: savethefrogs.com

Association of Zoos and Aquariums: www.aza.org/amphibian-conservation

 

Music written and performed by Katherine Camp

 

Transcript

(Piano music plays)

Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.

(Piano music stops)

Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 

This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.

This episode concludes caecilians and the tenth thing I like about these intriguing creatures is the conservation efforts we already have under way to protect their future. 

Throughout the last nine episodes I have clearly established that we don’t know as much about these fascinating amphibians as we should considering how long they’ve been on the planet. Of course, they are fairly secretive living underground and under the water, so it’s definitely been hard to study them. Having said this, you may be wondering how do we know anything about their conservation status if we can’t get an accurate count of how many are in the wild. The answer is, we can’t, but we do have enough information on some of the species to classify them on the IUCN red list of threatened species.

As a reminder, or for the first time if you haven’t listened to any of my previous series’, the IUCN stands for International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. They list the conservation status of animals and plants from around the world. A species can be listed as data deficient, which means we don’t have enough information to make a decision on whether the population is so low that the species is in danger of disappearing, or extinct, which means all the individuals of that species have died. They no longer exist. 

There are several stages in-between data deficient and extinct. These classifications help us develop plans to help species survive the changing environment that is most often impacted by human activity.

Of the 200 species of caecilians that we know about, 193 are listed on the IUCN’s red list. 76 are listed as Least Concern which is good, that means their populations are healthy and thriving. 3 are listed as Near Threatened which is a step up from Least Concern, which means they are still okay for now but we should start including them in conservation plans. 7 are listed as Vulnerable which means they are one step away from Endangered and need help now. 16 are listed as endangered which means if efforts are not taken now we could lose this species. And 2 are listed as critically endangered which means they are a step away from extinction. That leaves 89 listed species as Data Deficient, almost half of the known species of caecilians.

Now that we have the numbers, we have to ask what is impacting caecilian populations. I think you, my listeners, may be able to guess. According to the IUCN website habitat loss is the biggest impact on caecilian populations. It’s the subtropical and tropical species that are being disturbed the most and the activities that are impacting them are all human centric activities. Non-timber agriculture is the largest pressure on the habitat in which our most endangered caecilians are found. The pesticides used in association with the agriculture is the next threat to their lives. Since they live in the ground and are dependent on mainly insects for food you can see how they would be majorly impacted by these activities.

So what exactly are we doing to help? The first thing is we’re still studying them. The more information we have about how they live and where they live the better our conservation plans. We have to know what habitat is best for them, what they eat, and how long they live to truly understand how to successfully protect them. Studying their natural history is a great tool for any conservation efforts for their future. Any students or zoologists out there listening that are looking for a species to study, maybe you can think about caecilians.

Studying animal’s in situ, which means out in their natural habitat, can be difficult. First you need to find them, then you need to catch them without harming them, then you measure everything you can possibly measure such as weight, length, color, sex, and any distinguishing characteristics such as scars or patterning. Then before you let them go you tag them with some kind of ID tag that does not harm they, so if they are captured again or seen by naturalists data can be added to their history. For example, when ornithologists catch birds they place a ring around their leg that has a number on it specific to that bird. When that bird is found again or birders report seeing the bird that information is added to their file. This helps us understand how large an animal’s home territory my be, determine migration paths, and can tell us how long they live. 

Caecilians are even more difficult than most because they choose to live underground or underwater making it terribly difficult to find them, and once they have been found we have no way of permanently tagging them. This is something scientists are still working on for further research.

The other thing we are doing is protecting their habitat by declaring swaths of land preserves or national parks. This is often done because other plants and animals in the same area need protection, too. It’s a great side effect for the caecilians.

Habitat loss is not the only thing caecilians need to worry about. Disease is another serious threat to amphibians. One of the worst diseases effecting amphibians is chytridiomycosis. This is an infectious disease caused by a fungus and has been the cause of declines or complete extinction of over 200 amphibian species. It is know to effect over 350 species of amphibians and until 2013 we thought caecilians might be safe. Chytrid fungus gets into the skin of the amphibian which is devastating because amphibians breathe and take up water through their skin. This fungus interferes with that function. An infection is almost always fatal. Because most caecilians are fossorial we had hoped they might be unaffected by chytrid but a study published in 2013 did find the fungus present in 50% of the individuals tested from the wild. This was devastating news.

For years scientists have been working on a cure for the fungus, but very little head way has been made since what kills the fungus often kills the amphibian. Putting anything in on amphibians skin is instantly absorbed into their system, so it’s a thin line between curing and killing. Some head way has been made with an ionic liquid spread on the backs of frogs but this can only be done with captive individuals and is still not 100%. To date we have no real cure for this disease. 

So what can we do to help? If you are a hiker or explorer in areas where amphibians are common, the chytrid fungus is probably found there. To prevent spread of the fungus, disinfect your clothing and gear before you use them again at another site and do not transport amphibians of any kind from one habitat to another.  

On that note, if you are a hobbyist that likes to have amphibians as household pets, including caecilians, be sure you’re not getting your animals from illegal harvesting companies. Trapping for pet trade in another reason our amazing amphibians, including our caecilians, are disappearing. Make sure you’re patronizing a responsible person who sells only animals born in captivity.

For more on what you can do to help caecilians and other amphibians in the wild, check out my show notes where I have a few great organizations listed.

That’s it for caecilians! Thank you for joining me on this journey through caecilian behavior. I know I had an amazing trip and I think you did too. Conservation efforts for caecilians is my tenth favorite thing about this mysterious amphibian. 

 

If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 

 

Join me in two weeks when we’ll talk about an animal thought extinct since the time of the dinosaurs until it was rediscovered alive and well in 1938! 

 

(Piano Music plays) 

This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.