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The Colorado Wildlife Heritage
Foundation seeks to raise and manage funds to support Colorado’s 960
wildlife species, including amphibian and reptile research and conservation
by the Colorado Division of Wildlife and other organizations.
Some examples of possible projects
include:
Inventory Colorado’s amphibian
populations to establish their status, and for declining populations,
research to determine possible causes of decline.
Decline of amphibian populations has prompted an
effort to determine causes of decline in various locations and ecosystems.
Some causes which have been suggested include habitat alteration, introduced
species, disease, and environmental stressors such as ultraviolet radiation,
and contaminants in water and atmospheric deposition.
Boreal Toad Recovery
The
boreal toad, Bufo boreas boreas, has been
state-listed as endangered since November 1993. Since 1995, a broad range
of research has been conducted to ascertain cause(s) of boreal toad declines
and to develop strategies to successfully recover the toad to its historic
abundance and distribution. Current efforts focus on 1) improving captive
breeding and rearing techniques, 2) experimental reintroduction of boreal
toads into historic habitat, 3) monitoring of known breeding populations, 4)
identifying and evaluating factors limiting toad survival, 5) refining
knowledge of boreal toad population size, stability, and movement in
relation to use of various habitats, 6) defining habitat requirements of
various life stages, 7) protection of habitats through coordinated with land
management agencies, 8) increasing public awareness through education and
public involvement in searches for new populations, 9) determining the
genetic relationship of boreal toads in the Southern Rocky Mountain
population and defining management units and recovery strategies on this
basis and 9) continued research on disease impacts including treatments,
diagnostics, prevention, causes, etc.
As
part of the larger recovery effort, research is being conducted on boreal
toad populations, movements and limiting factors in Cucumber Gulch, near
Breckenridge. Cucumber Gulch has been identified as perhaps some of the
best boreal toad habitat in the state.
Research on massasagua snake in Baca County
The massasauga, Sistrurus catenatus,
is a small snake that is classified as endangered or threatened across much
of its range. The subspecies found in Colorado is the Desert Massasauga. The
Colorado populations are particularly important to the continued persistence
of this subspecies, due to the lack of information and population declines
being seen throughout the rest of its range (Texas, New Mexico, southeastern
Arizona, and Mexico). This project has two major goals: to obtain detailed
basic ecology and life history data for snakes in the Lincoln County
population and to conduct preliminary surveys of the Baca County
population. Research includes
PIT-tagging snakes, monitoring of movements
and identification of feeding grounds.
Research on the northern leopard frog in Grand County
The project will compile
existing data on the northern leopard frog, establish a baseline database of
northern leopard frog distributions and conduct a targeted inventory of the
frog in Grand County.
Eastern short-horned lizard Research
A study of
movements, home ranges, relative density and survival of adult eastern
short-horned lizards is being conducted on federal and private lands in the
Pawnee Grasslands. |
