Citizen Conservation is picking up speed. The founding year 2018 was mainly characterized by preparations and therefore largely theoretical, but in 2019, the first animals already moved in with participants of the conservation breeding program. And, looking back at 2020, you can see: It works! Not only did some animals already reach sexual maturity, but they’ve even had offspring. In addition, some already sexually mature animals that we adopted into the program promptly reproduced under the apparently very favorable conditions created by our breeders.

Originally, we had planned a significant increase in the number of species in CC for 2020. But a virus was blocking our path. Two expeditions to catch breeding animals in Africa were harshly stopped. Planned imports from South America failed due to new restrictions, a lack of flights, and thinned out personnel on both sides of the Atlantic. But we are keeping track of our goals, and hope to be able to carry out our already well-prepared projects in 2021 and 2022.

2020 did bring some new additions: with the Majorcan Midwife Toad (Alytes muletensis), we are including an endangered European species with a changeable and downright dramatic history. And with the Oriental fire-bellied toads (Bombina orientalis), we are trying out another strategy for species protection. More on this soon, here on the site.
In any case, we are picking up pace, and we are excited to see what 2021 will bring!