Why use Amphibian and Reptile Wildbook?

Amphibians are threatened by several factors, such as habitat fragmentation, pollution or the introduction of pathogens, such as BSal. Monitoring both the population size and geographic range can help to establish effective conservation plans. Our vision is to use innovative technology that leverages crowdsourced images to enable continuous and automated monitoring of the European fire salamander and other amphibians and reptiles.

Many amphibians, such as the fire salamander or the yellow-bellied toad, carry individual specific color patterns on their skin, which can be used to identify individuals. This enables us to use a photographic recapture analysis to estimate population sizes and movement distances in a completely non-invasive way.

Two fire salamanders with their individual specific colour pattern. Photo: K. Preissler

Two pictures of the same larva, with its unique tail pattern. Photos: P. Oswald.

As part of the Collaborative Research Center CRC-TRR 212, in which we study individualized niches, we are interested in individual life performance of fire salamanders, with the ultimate goal to understand the impact of the larval habitat on larval development, as well as habitat and mate choice of adults.