A recent United Nations report on the World’s biodiversity summarized evidence that a large proportion of global animal and plant species are threatened by human actions. Among those groups of species, amphibians - frogs, salamanders, and their relatives - are among the most endangered species. Among frogs alone, more than 100 species were driven to extinction in recent decades.
On May 22, Dr. Bryan Windmiller of Zoo New Englands’ Grassroots Wildlife Conservation will discuss the conservation of amphibians. He will discuss some of the reasons that frog diversity has declined particularly sharply in some regions of the World as well as the less bleak situation in New England.
Additionally, Bryan will discuss conservation efforts on behalf of local amphibian species, including reintroduction efforts on behalf of the two most threatened species in Massachusetts, the marbled salamander and the eastern spadefoot toad.
Bryan Windmiller was the founder and executive director of Grassroots Wildlife Conservation, a non-profit that integrated hands-on educational programs into the conservation of rare animal and plant species. Since late 2017, Bryan and his GWC staff have been incorporated into Zoo New England’s new Department of Conservation, of which Bryan is now the director. Bryan earned a PhD in biology and a Master's degree in Environmental Policy, both from Tufts University and has worked in various roles as a conservation biologist since 1987. His wife, Dr. Alison Robbins, is a wildlife veterinarian at Tufts University, and she and Bryan shared an appointment as visiting scholars studying amphibian epidemiology and conservation in Australia in 2006-2007.