Parvimolge townsendi (Townsend's Salamander)

[Sebbe]

Until recently there had only been a single record past 1997, despite many people looking for it. Though in 2010 it was found to be common in a few localities.

www.amphibians.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/FrogLog102.pdf

[surroundx]

Dec 26, 2014 22:42:22 GMT Sebbe said:

In Search of Critically Endangered Species: The Current Situation of Two Tiny Salamander Species in the Neotropical Mountains of Mexico

Worldwide, one in every three species of amphibian is endangered, 39 species have gone extinct in the last 500 years and another 130 species are suspected to have gone extinct in recent decades. Of the amphibians, salamanders have the highest portion of their species in one of the risk categories, even higher than the frogs. To date there have been few studies that have used recent field data to examine the status of populations of endangered salamanders. In this study we evaluate the current situation of two tiny salamanders, Parvimolge townsendi and Thorius pennatulus, both of which are distributed at intermediate elevations in the mountains of the northern Neotropics and are considered to be critically endangered; the first has been proposed as possibly extinct. By carrying out exhaustive surveys in both historical and potentially suitable sites for these two species, we evaluated their abundance and the characteristics of their habitats, and we estimated their potential geographic distribution. We visited 22 sites, investing 672 person-hours of sampling effort in the surveys, and found 201 P. townsendi salamanders in 11 sites and only 13 T. pennatulus salamanders in 5 sites. Both species were preferentially found in cloud forest fragments that were well conserved or only moderately transformed, and some of the salamanders were found in shade coffee plantations. The potential distribution area of both species is markedly fragmented and we estimate that it has decreased by more than 48%. The results of this study highlight the importance of carrying out exhaustive, systematic field surveys to obtain accurate information about the current situation of critically endangered species, and help us better understand the crisis that amphibians are facing worldwide.

www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0034023#pone.0034023-Papenfuss1

[Sebbe]

Historically this species was considered abundant, however the population has experienced dramatic declines with the main causes cited as habitat destruction and modification (Sandoval-Comte et al. 2012). Several expeditions in different years (e.g., 1983, 1998 and 1999) were unable to detect the species (Parra-Olea et al. 1999, Rovito et al. 2009). In 2010, surveys in the state of Veracruz found this species to be abundant or moderately abundant in 11 sites (7 of which were historical), with 201 individuals recorded over 672 person-hours of sampling effort and a mean rate of encounter of 6.8 salamanders per visit (Sandoval-Comte et al. 2012). 2018 surveys conducted in Veracruz recorded four individuals from under a rock on the edge of a dirt road in Tepexilotla, Municipality of Chocaman in January, one individual from the same general area in April, and one individual from Nogal, Municipality of Atzacan (Contreras-Calvario et al. 2019). In 2019, three individuals were recorded from the Ecological Park Cerro del Borrego, Municipality of Orizaba in Veracruz (Contreras-Calvario et al. 2019). In Puebla, this species is not considered to be abundant (L. Canseco-Márquez pers. comm. February 2020).

www.iucnredlist.org/species/59328/53980508#population