supply to sell them more cheaply than the organisms or products from the wild.
Legal captive breeding employers already produce thousands of birds, reptiles such
as chameleons, snakes, iguanas and mammals for the pet trade every year.
However, there is a twilight zone between legal and illegal trade. Captive-bred
animals are often complemented and crossbred with wild-caught animals. Animal
farms as way of sustainable production of pets can only be a solution if regulations of
animal welfare and nature conservation are strictly controlled and respected. There
are, however, also ethical objections. Would it really be an option to produce horns
of rhinos, exudates of tigers and bears, and fins of sharks via industrial farming and
mariculture even if this would be legal and economically promising?
Another possibility would be to define a positive (green) list of plant and animal
species and products that are allowed for commercial trade. This solution would
simplify and reduce the work of administrations and border control.
3.11 Captive Breeding and Release into the Wilderness
A frog calling for love in a dating pool?
Conservationists from Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) together with scientists of the Bolivian Amphibian Initiative started a rather spectacular
crowdfunding campaign in 2018 on a dating website.
One single male of a rare Sehuencas water frog species (called Romeo,
Telmatobius yuracare) lived 10 years after capture in a museum in Cochabamba,
and it was unclear if the species went extinct in the wild or not. For many years,
scientists tried to find a female or other individual of the Sehuencas water frog
without any success. Thus, it was impossible to start a breeding programme with the
lonesome male of the museum.
Therefore, the scientists set up a dating profile for Romeo (Match4Romeo) to find
a female Julieta in the wild and generated a lot of money from people in 32 countries.
With this money, it was possible to organize a joint field trip to systematically
looking for frogs deep inside the cloud forest of the Bolivian wilderness, boosting
hope to spare this amphibian species from extinction.
Finally, the trip was successful and the scientists returned with five individuals of
this rare species. Afterwards they started a breeding programme and there is hope
now that the species can survive in both captivity and the wild (information e.g. on
the webpage of the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide D’ Orbigny, http://
cochabambabolivia.net/museo-de-historia-natural-alcides-dorbigny; accessed
2/2019).
The story describes an example of an unusual measure that was established to
protect one of tens of thousands of threatened species on Earth. For a handful living
frog individuals and a breeding programme the overall investment was much more
than 25,000 USD and the effort of many scientists, organizations and donors
involved. However, independent of the question about cost-efficiency, the
174
C. Hobohm
Legal captive breeding employers already produce thousands of birds, reptiles such
as chameleons, snakes, iguanas and mammals for the pet trade every year.
However, there is a twilight zone between legal and illegal trade. Captive-bred
animals are often complemented and crossbred with wild-caught animals. Animal
farms as way of sustainable production of pets can only be a solution if regulations of
animal welfare and nature conservation are strictly controlled and respected. There
are, however, also ethical objections. Would it really be an option to produce horns
of rhinos, exudates of tigers and bears, and fins of sharks via industrial farming and
mariculture even if this would be legal and economically promising?
Another possibility would be to define a positive (green) list of plant and animal
species and products that are allowed for commercial trade. This solution would
simplify and reduce the work of administrations and border control.
3.11 Captive Breeding and Release into the Wilderness
A frog calling for love in a dating pool?
Conservationists from Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) together with scientists of the Bolivian Amphibian Initiative started a rather spectacular
crowdfunding campaign in 2018 on a dating website.
One single male of a rare Sehuencas water frog species (called Romeo,
Telmatobius yuracare) lived 10 years after capture in a museum in Cochabamba,
and it was unclear if the species went extinct in the wild or not. For many years,
scientists tried to find a female or other individual of the Sehuencas water frog
without any success. Thus, it was impossible to start a breeding programme with the
lonesome male of the museum.
Therefore, the scientists set up a dating profile for Romeo (Match4Romeo) to find
a female Julieta in the wild and generated a lot of money from people in 32 countries.
With this money, it was possible to organize a joint field trip to systematically
looking for frogs deep inside the cloud forest of the Bolivian wilderness, boosting
hope to spare this amphibian species from extinction.
Finally, the trip was successful and the scientists returned with five individuals of
this rare species. Afterwards they started a breeding programme and there is hope
now that the species can survive in both captivity and the wild (information e.g. on
the webpage of the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide D’ Orbigny, http://
cochabambabolivia.net/museo-de-historia-natural-alcides-dorbigny; accessed
2/2019).
The story describes an example of an unusual measure that was established to
protect one of tens of thousands of threatened species on Earth. For a handful living
frog individuals and a breeding programme the overall investment was much more
than 25,000 USD and the effort of many scientists, organizations and donors
involved. However, independent of the question about cost-efficiency, the
174
C. Hobohm