SAVING MANTELLAS

Nick Townsend, Newbury, Berks  

Hopefully all of you reading this newsletter will understand the need to conserve our precious gems.  Conserving the stock of Mantellas we control in the trade or hobby in the UK should be easy, but this does not appear to be the case.  Between myself and some other hobbyists we have decided direct action is the solution!
We propose to try to obtain the whereabouts, numbers, species etc of all of the Mantellas privately held in the UK to create a "studbook" for Mantella breeders to work with. We hope to gain the support of the Federation of Zoos and to document the knowledge on how to breed and keep the frogs.  The BDG has already been able to help Bristol Zoo with their Mantella project and we would like to expand on this.  We intend to publish all information on keeping and breeding Mantellas on the web, knowledge sharing being the key! By using all existing resources we want to put together a group of hobbyists to start a breeding programme to cover all available species.  By creating this we will negate the need to acquire frogs from the wild and only existing stock held in Europe is to be used.
What do we want from you?  We need to start by using all of our contacts in the trade or hobby to find out who is keeping what, their origins and the name, address and contact numbers of those who are prepared to be part of the breeding programme.
Send this information to myself nick.townsend@vf. vodafone.co.uk or mbajcar@aol.com as soon as you can so we can get the ball rolling!  If you want any other information then please then please call me on 07881 911533 anytime.