Conservation Projects
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums is highlighting 2008 as the Year of the Frog to mark a major conservation effort to address the amphibian extinction crisis.See below for ways you can get involved and explore the world of amphibians!
SouthCoastToday.com video about Year of the Frog
Featuring our education staff and zookeepers!
Why Year of the Frog?
Frogs are going extinct. So are toads, salamanders, newts, and the intriguingly unusual caecilians. In fact, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) estimates that at least one-third of known amphibian species are threatened with extinction. While the major culprit has historically been habitat loss and degradation, many of the declines and extinctions are now being attributed to the rapidly dispersing infectious disease chytridiomycosis ("chytrid"). This fungus is causing population and species extinctions at an alarming rate. Can you imagine if we were about to lose one-third of the world's mammals?
Learn more: AZA Year of the Frog
What is Being Done?
Follow the linked image below for information on amphibian conservation efforts:
Domestic Heritage Breeds
Buttonwood Park Zoo is breeding four domestic heritage breeds considered "endangered" or "critical" by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy: Randall Lineback Cows, Leicester Longwool Sheep, Suffolk Punch Draft Horses, and Tamworth Hogs. All breeding (choice of Dam, sire, etc.) is based on the recommendation of the breed's studbook keeper.
Cape Cod Stranding Network
Buttonwood Park Zoo supports the Cape Cod Stranding Network (a regional marine mammal stranding group) with training, labor, supplies, and veterinary care. Currently six Zoo employees are considered "level A" first responders.
Endangered Turtle Conservation Initiative
There are several species of native, endemic turtles that are considered "endangered" or "threatened" or worthy of "special concern" to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Federal government. They include terrestrial Wood Turtles and Box Turtles, semi-aquatic Bog Turtles and Blandings Turtles, aquatic Spotted Turtles and Plymouth Red-bellied Cooters (RBC), estuarine Northern Diamond-Back Terrapins (DBT), and marine Kemps Ridleys, Green, and Loggerhead sea turtles. The Buttonwood Park Zoo considers the conservation of these turtles a high priority and is actively working to implement their recovery.
Plymouth Red-belly Cooters are a critically endangered native freshwater turtle. Their headstart project is run in cooperation with the Commonwealth Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and has successfully re-introduced 1500 hatchlings since it's inception in 1984. In late summer Division personnel identify nesting sites and collect day-old hatchlings. They are brought to the Zoo and other locations where they are over-wintered in supra-optimal conditions of warmth and abundant food supply. Generally they grow from one-inch carapace length and 10 grams to five-inch carapace length and 500 grams in June when they are released back into their native ponds. This size differential greatly reduces mortality at their most vulnerable time and is generally credited with not only preventing their extinction but with increasing the population from a low of 300 adults in 1984 to greater that 1000 today.
The Zoo successfully head-started 6 hatchlings in 2001-2002, and a second cohort (12 hatchlings) arrived in late August 2002. In addition to the Plymouth Red-bellied Cooter, Bristol and Plymouth counties are home to the state-designated threatened Northern Diamond-back Terrapin. This turtle is at the extreme northern aspect of its range and faces a variety of environmental threats from habitat loss, pet predation and ORV activity. In the past four years headstarting projects at other institutions has been attempted with varying degrees of success. The Zoo consulted with state wildlife authorities and local Diamond-back Terrapin experts and initiated a head-start program for this species in September 2002.
