Amazing Amphibians: Science and Conservation

Jennifer Barry Pramuk

Wildlife Conservation Society

Sweating the Small Stuff:

Why Amphibians Matter

As Curator of Herpetology at the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Bronx Zoo, Jennifer Pramuk oversees a diverse collection of over 800 reptiles and amphibians from around the world. Departmental staff is responsible for the care of animals - many threatened or endangered - at the Zoo's historic World of Reptiles, the only building still in its original use from the day the Zoo opened its doors on November 8, 1898. Pramuk also oversees care for animals at the Zoo's award-winning JungleWorld and Congo Gorilla Forest exhibits. Collections of animals include more than 1040 specimens of 143 species, ranging from giant false gharials to tiny Kinhasi spray toads, highly endangered amphibians about the size of a nickel. Building on her love of toads and frogs, first developed as a child, Pramuk began her career with animals volunteering first as a zookeeper at Akron Zoo in Ohio and later at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a zookeeper in the Reptile House of the Audubon Zoological Park and Gardens, New Orleans. She has also worked as a scientific illustrator, curatorial assistant, college instructor, and laboratory manager. Pramuk has been widely published in herpetological journals and has appeared as an invited speaker at seminars around the world. Most recently, she spoke in March 2006 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on "The 'rediscovery' and utilization of disparate types of data to infer evolutionary histories of amphibians and reptiles." Her extensive field research has taken her to Costa Rica, French Guiana, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, and most recently, Tanzania where she studied reptiles and amphibians. Some of her fieldwork has led to descriptions of new species of frogs and toads (21 species to date). In the future, she plans to continue to develop her work documenting diversity of amphibians and reptiles in Latin America where amphibians in particular are experiencing unprecedented declines. Her work at the Bronx Zoo will focus on the captive breeding of flagship species of endangered and threatened species of frogs.
Pramuk currently serves on the steering committee of the AZA Amphibian TAG, the Board of Governors for the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, and as a referee on several professional publications.
A native of Akron, Ohio, Pramuk and her husband currently live in New Jersey. She received her B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she was an honors student. Her M.A. and Ph.D. were both awarded with honors by the University of Kansas Lawrence. Post-doctoral research was at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, where she studied evolutionary relationships of night lizards.

Ambystoma maculatum

Ed Johnson

Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences

Amphibians of Staten Island:

Status and Conservation

Description of Talk:

This lecture will look at the 19 species of amphibians known to have occurred on Staten Island. Their life habits, past and current status and distribution will be presented. Conservation measures needed for their future survival will also be discussed. The lecture will be illustrated with slides of the various species.

About the lecturer:

Mr. Johnson's interest in local amphibians goes back to his childhood days of catching frogs in Clove Lakes Park. A two-year high school internship in the Staten Island Zoo's reptile wing eventually led to a job in the Zoo's education department. From 1975-1982 Mr. Johnson was Assistant Director of Herpetological Associates, Inc., conducting extensive field research on endangered and threatened amphibians and reptiles in New Jersey. From 1982 to the present, Mr. Johnson has been employed by the Staten Island Museum, where he is currently Director of Science. He holds a BS in Biology from Wagner College and an MS in Environmental Science from the College of Staten Island, where he is also an adjunct lecturer.

preserved atelopus

John E. Simmons

University of Kansas Natural History Museum

Preserving Amphibians for Collections

About the lecturer:

John E. Simmons has conducted herpetological field work throughout Latin America and, most recently, in Thailand. He also consults and teaches collections care workshops in the US, Latin America, and Asia. As a student, Simmons worked for a year in the upper Amazon and spent another 14 months collecting amphibians and reptiles in the Andes. He began his professional career as a zoo keeper in the Herpetarium at the Fort Worth Zoological Park, and later managed the herpetology collections at the California Academy of Sciences and the University of Kansas. Simmons has a B.S. in Systematics & Ecology and an M.A. in Historical Administration & Museum Studies. His recent publications include Herpetological Collecting and Collections Management (2002), Cuidado, Manejo y Conservación de las Colecciones Biológicas (2005), Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies (2006), and Upward range extension of Andean anurans and chytridiomycosis to extreme elevations in response to tropical deglaciation (2006). Simmons recently moved from his position as Collection Manager at the Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Research Center and the Director of the Museum Studies Program at the University of Kansas to become a full-time consultant and writer, based in State College, Pennsylvania.

caecilian

Ed Kowalski

Philadelphia Zoo

Caecilians:

Natural History and Captive Management

Description of Talk:

Caecilians, or Gymnophiona, are often regarded as the forgotten order of amphibians. The first part of the presentation will focus on the natural history of Caecilians; including gestation, feeding of developing young and eyeless perception of the world. The second part will go into detail of the captive management of the Sao Tome (Schistometopum thomenses), Rio Cauca (Typhlonectes natans), and Mexican Caelcilian(Dermophis mexicana). Expect to have a new understanding and appreciation for these "sock puppets" of the amphibian world.

About the lecturer:

Ed Kowalski has been interested in and working with amphibians and reptiles for over 35 years and has been working at the Philadelphia Zoo as a Keeper in the Department of Herpetology since 1992 where he has primarily concentrated on working with various amphibian species. He has also written a number of articles which have been published in magazines such as Reptiles, Reptile and Amphibian Hobbyist, and Reptilia. Currently he is a member of the Steering Committee for Tree Walkers International, the committee for International Amphibian Days, and as a Moderator for Caudata.Org. Additionally he is a regular participant in discussions on several forums such as frognet.org and Dendroboard.com

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