# The Fate of Blue Auratus



## Onagro (Jun 9, 2006)

While I was surfing the internet, I found this report on auratus in general on Natureserve.org that said the blue morph of auratus was in danger of extinction in 1992. All I know now is the area they inhabited now has condos built on it. Does anyone know what's going on with the morph?

Link to the report http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Dendrobates+auratus
open the conservation status bar to see the entry.


----------



## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

I can't speak specifically to the blue morph...Matt Mirabello might have some info (I believe he has a few of these).

Quoted from the link:



> Owing to the apparently low fecundity of this species, the possibility exists that overharvesting, especially of the rarer morphs, may contribute to localised population declines. Approximately 18,500 specimens of D. auratus were reported in trade over the period 1991 to 1996. The great majority of specimens were live animals, exported from Nicaragua, and presumably destined for the herpetological pet market. The USA was by far the largest single importer of D. auratus (~15,000 animals in total) during this period


 :shock: 
I think this is an example of how we can be fooled into considering a species "established" in the hobby. I think most people would consider our skills and abilities to have surpassed such an 'easy' species as D. auratus and that it's position is fairly safe...but seeing numbers like this, you really have to wonder where all those specimens went (15,000 over the course of 5 years?!), and how many have truly been 'established' long-term in someone's hands.


----------



## Onagro (Jun 9, 2006)

Seeing those numbers is what really disturbed me. 15,000 to the US and where did they all go?


----------



## Roadrunner (Mar 6, 2004)

Well we now know where they would`ve went had we not collected them. Pretty much a similar fate. At least there are a few left in the hobby, can we say that about the wild?


----------



## Matt Mirabello (Aug 29, 2004)

frogfarm said:


> Well we now know where they would`ve went had we not collected them. Pretty much a similar fate. At least there are a few left in the hobby, can we say that about the wild?


auratus (and pumilio) seem to do well in areas of human disturbance as evidenced by the pumilio in areas where hotels and plantations are put in and auratus in parts of Hawaii. I prefer to see the frogs in their natural habitat, but lets not count them out yet.

Blue auratus are still alive and well in Panama, at least as of September of 2007. I cannot however say if these are the same population or even related to the blue auratus that you mention in the 1992 article.

I have Mike Shrom's old blue auratus at my place, they have not produced eggs since I have gotten them, but I am patient. He had them for 10+ years and produced hundreds of frogs that went into the hobby. Can anyone trace back blue auratus to anyone but him?

Matt


----------



## Roadrunner (Mar 6, 2004)

No, as far as i know he had the only ones from back then. They stopped importing them before I got into the hobby, or stoped in my first year or 2. I noticed right off I wasn`t ready for wc w/ the success at that time in the hobby so I kept mostly to cb till costa rica opened. If anyone else released cb from wc around that time michael was the only one who survived it.


----------



## Matt Mirabello (Aug 29, 2004)

frogfarm said:


> If anyone else released cb from wc around that time michael was the only one who survived it.


Aaron, I have to check with Michael but I do not even think his pair was WC, my thought was that they came from Europe CB (but do not hold me to that just yet)


----------



## Onagro (Jun 9, 2006)

Matt Mirabello said:


> auratus (and pumilio) seem to do well in areas of human disturbance as evidenced by the pumilio in areas where hotels and plantations are put in and auratus in parts of Hawaii. I prefer to see the frogs in their natural habitat, but lets not count them out yet.
> 
> Blue auratus are still alive and well in Panama, at least as of September of 2007. I cannot however say if these are the same population or even related to the blue auratus that you mention in the 1992 article.
> 
> Matt


The Pacific side blue auratus are the older ones in the hobby. This population is known as "Calobre" on a few of the European dart frog sites. The new ones are labeled "Santa Maria" on the same site and are apparently much more variable (they may be a form of Turquoise Auratus). I am shocked that there was only one line of them though.


----------



## Roadrunner (Mar 6, 2004)

Ya your right, I don`t think those 15000 were from that blue panama population alone or if any were exported from that blue population. They may have only imported from the green and black panama populations back then to reflect those #`s. That was a long time ago and my memory is a bit hazy from back then.


----------



## Matt Mirabello (Aug 29, 2004)

frogfarm said:


> Ya your right, I don`t think those 15000 were from that blue panama population alone or if any were exported from that blue population. They may have only imported from the green and black panama populations back then to reflect those #`s. That was a long time ago and my memory is a bit hazy from back then.


15000 was probably the quota for all auratus from Panama. I remember hearing similar numbers for pumilio from nicaragua


----------



## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

The original blue Auratus that came to the US in the mid/early 90's were all CB out of Europe. We all heard back then that the blue Auratus were going extinct in the wild and from what I understood there was only one known population. My guess that population may not exist any more but as we all know other populations of blue Auratus have shown up...although some imported as farm raised 2-3 years ago looked very similar to the original morph, the ones from the last 18 months are markedly different and prettier in my opinion.


----------



## ColombianFrogger (Jul 9, 2004)

Also, in Colombia we have a blue auratus morph, but different to the one you know from Panama. I havent pictures, but it lives in northern Choco


----------



## Onagro (Jun 9, 2006)

ColombianFrogger said:


> Also, in Colombia we have a blue auratus morph, but different to the one you know from Panama. I havent pictures, but it lives in northern Choco


I didn't know that. For some reason, I thought the Colombian Auratus where all black and green. Maybe there are some pictures online somewhere.


----------

