Tierpark Chemnitz: New rare amphibian species on display
Chemnitz Zoo has been keeping a new rare amphibian species in the vivarium since the beginning of October: the lemur tree frog. Five animals currently live in the vivarium. This is a special feature of Chemnitz Zoo and is home to more than 80 different amphibian species. These include many rarities, species that are rarely exhibited in zoological institutions or can only rarely be found in the wild. The lemur tree frog belongs to both categories. This frog species, which is native to North and South America, is only exhibited in three other institutions in Germany apart from Chemnitz, with a total of 14 across Europe.
The lemur tree frog is found in Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia, but only in a few, locally separated populations. The destruction of the habitat by humans, but also the spread of the chytrid fungus, which is considered to be one of the causes of amphibian extinction, have severely affected the species. Lemur tree frog populations are declining significantly. For this reason, they have been classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species since 2020 - the highest of three endangerment categories.
This makes the successful and coordinated breeding of such endangered species all the more important, especially as amphibians are considered the most threatened class of vertebrates worldwide. Chemnitz Zoo makes an important contribution to the conservation of various species with its regular breeding programmes. In view of the development of species extinction, such ex-situ conservation breeding programmes - which coordinate the breeding of endangered species outside their natural habitat - must be further expanded in the future.
This is why the Association of Zoological Gardens (VdZ), of which Chemnitz Zoo is a member, Frogs & Friends1) and the German Society for Herpetology and Terrarium Science (DGHT) launched the joint Citizen Conservation (CC) project in 2018.
The CC project aims to increase the number of conservation breeding programmes with the help of selected private keepers and to increase the keeping capacities within the programmes. The project is primarily aimed at species that are less in the public eye.
The lemur tree frog has also been included in this project and is to be bred in various zoos and by private keepers in the future. Chemnitz Zoo would also like to contribute to the conservation of this species with its expertise in the field of amphibian husbandry and breeding and is already working closely with Citizen Conservation on several endangered amphibian species.
1)Frogs & Friends began in 2014 as an initiative of the Interactive Media Foundation and was founded as a non-profit organisation in the same year. Initially planned as a cross-media project, Frogs & Friends has since established itself as a permanent fixture in international amphibian conservation. Further information: https://www.frogs-friends.org/de/
Opening hours - zoo and wildlife park - from November to February:
Daily, 9am to 4pm, last admission 3pm.
www.tierpark-chemnitz.de