A year and a half ago, we started developing our conservation breeding program using amphibians as an example. This included everything that belongs in a pilot phase: Setting up the organizational structure, the website, the administration. Funding had to be secured, the workforce built up, and of course we had to introduce CC to the public. We started with five “example species”.

Our Lake Patzcuaro Salamanders are slowly but surely growing up. Last fall, a female salamander laid a first clutch of eggs in the Münster Zoo, from which two larvae hatched, but unfortunately have not developed yet. Nevertheless: it’s a beginning! Our bony-headed toad breeders are reporting of their first attempts to get into the amplexus – the clasped position the frogs use for mating. We are optimistic that we will be able to show our first breeding successes for these species in 2020.

With the Almanzor fire salamanders, it will probably take a year or two until the young animals reach sexual maturity. In contrast, the Demonic poison frogs and the Lemur leaf frog so far have not succeeded in building potential breeding groups. With such rare species, it is sometimes hard to get suitable pilot animals in the first place. But we do have some good news from the Lemur leaf frog: We will soon be able to add a large number of young leaf frogs to the project, so that in 2020/21 we can hope for offspring from these critically endangered frogs.

As our sixth and final species, we were able to add the Vietnamese crocodile newt to the CC program. The first ever successful breeding of these rare amphibians took place in the Cologne Zoo the year before. And they did not slow down: As soon as they were moved to a private CC breeder at the turn of the year, they started their reproductive activities. In the meantime, the first larvae are growing up, and we are optimistic that we will be able to show the first own CC offspring of this species in our next biannual figures on November 1, 2020.