- Conservationists in Argentina’s Patagonia region have helped save the country’s most threatened amphibian, the El Rincon stream frog, a species whose entire existence centers on a single warm stream in the Somuncurá Plateau.
- To restore the frog population, researchers removed invasive trout from the stream, bred hundreds of frogs in captivity and released them in the wild, and worked with ranchers to keep cattle out of the frogs’ habitat.
- Researcher Federico Kacoliris, who mobilized the conservation movement around the species, recently received a Whitley Award, known as the “Green Oscars,” which will help his foundation expand protections in the area.
A first look at Argentina’s Somuncurá Plateau reveals features somewhat predictable for a Patagonian steppe: shrubs, grass, plains, and rocky outcrops. Only the occasional volcanic peak breaks the monotony of the landscape spanning an area larger than Switzerland across the provinces of Rio Negro and Chubut.
But in this apparent monotony, life abounds as the plateau’s conditions make it one of Patagonia’s key biodiversity areas and home to several endemic species.
Among those, one critically endangered species has caught the attention of researchers and, more recently, of the wider conservation world.
Measuring less than 5 centimeters (2 inches) in length, the El Rincon stream frog (Pleurodema somuncurense) relies on the warm headwaters of the Valcheta stream, fed by the Somuncurá’s hot springs.
Here, the microendemic amphibian, whose habitat measures no more than 10 square kilometers (3.7 square miles), finds refuge from the plateau’s large temperature variations.
The species was described by scientists in the late 1960s, but went on to be largely ignored by science until the early 2000s, when it became increasingly exposed to habitat loss, invasive species and cattle ranching. That earned it the status of critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, making it one of the world’s most threatened amphibians.
Federico Kacoliris has long studied the El Rincon stream frog.
Aside from adding knowledge about the species and its habitats, Kacoliris, who leads the Somuncurá Foundation, has mobilized a conservation movement around this tiny amphibian. So far, the effort coordinated by several NGOs with ranchers and local communities has boosted the frog population by about 15% to date from an initial count of just over 4,500 adult individuals in 2018.
These restoration efforts have also benefited the critically endangered naked characin fish (Gymnocharacinus bergii), Patagonia’s only endemic fish species, found only in the Valcheta stream.
For his work, Kacoliris was recently named a winner of the Whitley Award, a prestigious prize known as the “Green Oscars” that supports grassroots conservation across the Global South.
“As a conservation symbol, the El Rincon frogs are very important because … they are the most threatened amphibian species in the country,” Kacoliris says.
A key action to conserve the frogs has been tackling the predatory species that have invaded their habitat. Predatory rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were introduced in the Valcheta stream, and across Argentina, during the 1920s; a highly aggressive species, it quickly became the top predator, pushing the El Rincon frogs into the headwaters and a few isolated tributaries.
But even in these small patches away from the trout, the frogs saw their habitats threatened by cattle, which trampled on vital vegetation and polluted the waters, causing eutrophication, or low-oxygen dead spots, Kacoliris says.
Removing the trout was “the only way to guarantee the long-term survival of the frogs,” he adds.
Using a system of natural features such as waterfalls, alongside artificial barriers, the team from the Somuncurá Foundation has cleared the stream one section at a time, increasing the frog’s natural habitat by more than 15%, Kacoliris says. They then released thousands of tadpoles into the trout-free, restored areas.
To address cattle invasions, the Somuncurá Foundation works with local ranchers. Traditionally, they raised sheep here, but about 10 years ago, as increasing numbers of sheep fell prey to pumas and Andean foxes, they switched to cattle, Kacoliris says. This despite the land and climate being too hostile for ranching.
In many places, the Valcheta stream runs through private properties, and Kacoliris has worked with individual ranchers, striking deals to fence off key areas of the stream, where the thermal waters bubble to the surface, and where both the frogs and fish go to breed.
Water troughs are provided so the cattle still have easy access to water. Kacoliris also encourages ranchers to return to sheep farming, showing them it can be much more lucrative, and providing them with guardian dogs to protect the livestock from predator attacks. At the same time, the program is working to discourage the shooting of pumas and Andean foxes.
“The frogs are like [a] flagship species,” Kacoliris says. “[The ranchers] are really proud about being neighbors of these incredible animals, it’s a kind of local symbol.”
Marta and Benedicto Ortiz are siblings who have been farming sheep and goats across about 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) on the plateau for more than 50 years. Speaking through Kacoliris, they say that when they were children, the stream was full of frogs, but that over the years these disappeared.
They’ve allowed the foundation to fence off some of the stream that runs across their family’s land, and say they’re proud to help protect the frogs and naked characins living there.
The siblings also have three guard dogs that they say have reduced the loss of sheep to predators.
Over the last four years, the Somuncurá Foundation, in partnership with the U.K. charity World Land Trust and partner NGO the Habitat and Development Foundation (Fundación Hábitat y Desarrollo), have acquired 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) across the plateau, which now forms the region’s first nature reserve.
The ultimate aim, Kacoliris says, is to donate the land to Argentina’s National Parks Service, which will give it a higher level of protection.
This marks a rare success for conservationists working to save the world’s amphibians. According to research published in February, amphibians worldwide receive just 2.8% of all conservation funding, despite the fact that 41% of the entire class are threatened with extinction.
“Amphibians are the most threatened animals on the planet,” says Jeanne Tarrant, director at Anura Africa, an NGO supporting amphibian conservation across Africa.
Yet conservation efforts are “massively underfunded compared to other groups [such as] charismatic mega-fauna,” she says.
Amphibians, along with reptiles and insects, have an image problem, she adds; they lack the perceived charisma of iconic species such as pandas and tigers. It’s an issue that goes back to the earliest days of zoological study, Tarrant says, when Carl Linneaus, the 18th-century father of modern taxonomy, described reptiles and amphibians as “foul and loathsome.” The label has stuck in the mind of the public and potential donors.
But Tarrant says perceptions are starting to change, and there’s now greater recognition of the important role that frogs, lizards, and beetles play in maintaining healthy ecosystems.
“There really does seem to be a genuine increase in interest in the smaller, less charismatic things,” she says.
Typically, she says, biologists have shunned the limelight, preferring to work alone out in the field. But that has had to change, and they now play a crucial role as storytellers, as well as working with other academics, such as social scientists, to understand the fears and concerns of local communities.
“[People] want to know why something is useful,” Tarrant says, and it’s important to explain the significance of a species and the role it performs.
The big sell with frogs, she says, is that they’re great natural pest controllers, eating insects that could otherwise destroy crops. They even play a role in human health; one study linked an increase in malaria cases in Central America to the decline of amphibian populations, which allowed disease-carrying mosquitoes to flourish.
To help breed El Rincon stream frogs, in 2016 the researchers set up an initial facility at La Plata Museum in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, the country’s first facility for threatened amphibians.
After two successful reintroductions of 200 juvenile frogs born at the facility, in 2022 the ex-situ program moved to Buenos Aires Eco-Park, a conservation center based at the former city zoo.
Borja Baguette Pereiro is a conservation coordinator at the eco-park and worked with Kacoliris to nurture the eggs into tadpoles and eventually juvenile El Rincon stream frogs for release back into the wild. He agrees that biologists need to be good storytellers, too.
“The priority is that people become familiar with the species: for them to know where it lives, what it looks like, what it eats and what threats it faces.”
While the eco-park also runs conservation programs for more iconic species such as the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) and the South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris), Pereiro’s team is also focused on saving less captivating species such as the minute Apipé water snail (Aylacostoma chloroticum), the scorpion mud turtle (Kinosternon scorpiodes), and endemic species living in remote environments, such as the Pehuenche spiny-chest frog (Alsodes pehuenche), which only inhabits the meltwater streams high in the central Andes.
“Species such as frogs or small reptiles are frequently endemic, highlighting the importance of the local community recognizing them as their own,” Pereiro says. “Without their involvement in conservation, no one else will step in.”
Kacoliris agrees that creating a narrative is an important part of conservation, especially when dealing with amphibians.
“The way we share our enthusiasm about conserving these small animals is by telling the story,” he says.
Schoolchildren from the village of Chipauquil, on the Somuncurá Plateau, for instance, have taken part in the project, adopting the frogs and monitoring them after their release.
“It is key to engage the local people in the conservation actions,” Kacoliris says, “because they are the final guardians of the whole biodiversity of the region.”
This article was originally published on Mongabay.
Header Image by Hernan Povedano, courtesy of Federico Kacoliris
