Tropical Herping (Fundación Jocotoco)
Tropical Herping is an initiative striving to preserve tropical reptiles and amphibians through tourism, photography, research, and education.
At A Glance
- Programme: Amphibian
- Years Funded: 2020
- Species Focus: Amphibians
- Geographic Focus: Latin America & Caribbean
Tropical Herping is an initiative striving to preserve tropical reptiles and amphibians through tourism, photography, research, and education.
Its goal is to create a passion for amphibians and reptiles among the greatest number of people in order to obtain the support needed to address the most urgent conservation challenges faced by this group of animals.
Tropical Herping has partnered with Fundación Jocotoco on a project to perform ‘search and rescue’ missions where Endangered or Critically Endangered amphibians are brought back to a captive breeding facility for ex-situ conservation, and they will be in charge of most fieldwork, photography and research. They have more than a decade of experience doing herpetological research in Ecuador and have published more than 20 scientific papers. They have discovered 24 new species to science, and published several field guides about Ecuadorian herpetology.
Fundación Jocotoco and Tropical Herping have collaborated strongly since 2015, and have discovered and described several species new to science, and protected them effectively through land protection and reserve expansion.