Developmental life stages of the Pickersgill's reed frog (Hyperolius pickersgilli) in an ex-situ environment at Johannesburg Zoo's captive breeding facility, South Africa.

ABSTRACT: Globally, the threats of habitat loss and disease on amphibian survival have necessitated the creation of ex-situ insurance populations as a conservation tool. We initiated a captive breeding project to create an insurance population for the endangered Pickersgill's reed frog (Hyperolius pickersgilli Raw, 1982) at the Johannesburg Zoo from parents collected from KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, in 2017. We found that this species has seven developmental life stages, each with unique management requirements. The quiescent tadpoles hatched 6-8 days after the eggs were laid and remained at this stage for 2 days. The next stage, the developing tadpoles, showed no form of cannibalism or carrion feeding. The external appearance of the first leg (the right hind) occurred 5-6 weeks after the

SUBMITTER: du Plessis I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10078702 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature