Restoring a species’ presence
Returning to the landscape after disease.
Since 2009, the team has worked with the research and monitoring centre at Sierra de Guadarrama National Park to reintroduce the common midwife toad.
Released animals come from the park’s conservation-breeding centre for threatened amphibians, which maintains an assurance population and prepares animals for release.
Releases have not yet restored population sizes to their levels before the severe chytridiomycosis outbreak, but they have kept the species present in the protected area.
Keeping a species in its landscape is the first step towards rebuilding a population.
The programme combines ex situ conservation, disease monitoring and planned releases into the wild.
