No 1 2025 - Bufotes viridis
Amphibians are declining all over the world ultimately due to habitat loss, pollution, and climate change. Re-introduction of captive bred specimens is becoming a common conservation method, but difficult to monitor and its success is challenging to estimate. Radio telemetry (RT) has been shown to be an effective monitoring method to relocate released individuals but has rarely been evaluated for amphibians. Since amphibians have very delicate skin with many functions, the evaluation of the use of RT is both important from a conservation point of view but has also a welfare aspect.
In this study we tested the impact of RT waist belts on reintroduced European green toads (Bufotes viridis). To ensure appropriate fitting, the RT waist belts were fitted in laboratory before the reintroduction took place.
The results after three weeks in the field, showed a low number of skin abrasions on the toads and a low number of dropped RT waist belts. However, we discuss some improvements for the design and the fitting of the RT waist belts.