I’m leading the Laboratory of Animal Behaviour and Conservation at Nanjing Forestry University, where we focus on a broad range of species. Projects were so far focused on the behavioural ecology and conservation of amphibian species in East Asia, but this is changing and you are welcome to inquire, maintaining a focus on North East Asia.
A new global reviewsynthesises conservation status assessments and decades of amphibian conservation research to reveal the latest trends in conservation status and outline priority actions for their protection. The findings underscore the alarming rate of declines, but also highlight promising signs of recovery where conservation is working. The authors stress that coordinated international action is essential to secure the future of frogs, salamanders, newts, and caecilians worldwide.
Amphibians continue to face an unprecedented high extinction risk, with 41% of species classified as threatened. The main drivers of threat include habitat loss, climate change, disease, pollution, and invasive species. The new review “Conservation Priorities for Global Amphibian Biodiversity“, led by Prof. Amaël Borzée, presents the most comprehensive synthesis to date of conservation progress, population trends, and policy measures guiding amphibian protection efforts worldwide.
Extract showing temporal and regional variation in threat status. a, Category changes from 1980 to 2004 using backcast categories from the second Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA2) (517 species). b, Category changes from 2004 to 2022 using backcast categories from the GAA2 (392 species).
Since 1980, the conservation status of hundreds of amphibians has worsened, with 37 species now confirmed extinct, and another 185 have disappeared and are potentially extinct. Disease has been the primary driver behind many of these declines and remains a critical challenge for conservation efforts. Yet the review also highlights meaningful progress: the conservation status of 120 species has improved, thanks to effective habitat protection, targeted management, and dedicated recovery programs.
Example of some of the research conducted by the lab to help understand the population trends in amphibians in northeast Asia, and how to mitigate the losses.
Global prioritisation tools, such as Threatened Amphibian Landscapes (TAL), Highly Threatened Genera, and Key Biodiversity Areas, are proving essential for guiding strategic investment and identifying priority sites and species for action, and the global Amphibian Conservation Action Plan provides evidence for methods that work. These tools help ensure that limited resources are focused where they will deliver the greatest conservation impact. Meanwhile, biodiversity indicators such as the IUCN Red List Index and the Green Status of Species Index continue to advance our understanding of conservation progress and the potential for species recovery.
While improvements in the conservation status of some species demonstrate the potential for recovery with targeted conservation action, the authors caution that current efforts remain insufficient. Long-term success will require conservation actions that align with global commitments, including the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Only through strengthened collaboration between governments, conservation organisations, research institutions, and local communities can we shift amphibians worldwide from crisis toward recovery.
As the need for sustainable pest management grows, integrating animal cognition into biological control presents an innovative and effective approach. In our recent paper, “Biological pest regulation can benefit from diverse predation modes”, we explore the critical role of amphibians and reptiles in natural pest regulation, emphasising the cognitive mechanisms that drive their foraging behaviour.
Amphibians and reptiles, with their diverse predation strategies—ambush and active foraging—are key to efficient pest control. These species exhibit distinct cognitive traits, from perception and learning to spatial memory, all of which influence their interaction with prey. For instance, ambush predators rely heavily on movement cues, waiting for mobile prey, while active foragers actively seek out food, utilising olfactory and spatial cues to navigate their environment.
Overview of the concept showing the difference in foraging mode between active and ambush predators impacting biological pest regulation (with amphibians as the model bioregulator). More here: 10.1098/rsos.240535
By understanding these cognitive processes, we can develop more targeted strategies to keep pest management evolving. As agricultural landscapes become more fragmented and ecosystems face increasing pressure, tapping into the behavioural flexibility of amphibians and reptiles offers a promising path. Their cognitive abilities not only make them efficient bioregulators but also provide a natural, environmentally friendly alternative to chemical pesticides, aligning pest control with biodiversity conservation. The future of pest management lies in understanding and leveraging these animal behaviours for both ecological and agricultural benefits.
The lab’s latest publication focuses on Hoplobatrachus chinensis, a frog species that lives mainly in plains and hilly landscapes at altitudes between 20 and 1120 m. It is commonly found in moist habitats such as agricultural wetlands, ditches, and ponds in East and Southeast Asia. The species is generally present in rice paddies and their surrounding areas, as rice paddies provide the necessary conditions for development, growth, and breeding, such as shallow, slow-moving water bodies, surrounded by moist surface soils, abundant food sources, and adequate sheltering micro-habitat. In recent decades, due to human disturbance, over-harvesting, and ecological degradation, H. chinensis has declined sharply in population density and distribution area.
Geographic locations of Hoplobatrachus chinensis. A: H. chinensis adult, photograph by Vishal Kumar Prasad; B: H. chinensis eggs, photograph by Amaël Borzée.
Therefore, in order to explore the effects of climate change and dispersal ability on the range of H. chinensis and its occupation of agricultural wetlands, we use survey records and secondary sources (Global Biodiversity Information Facility database), together with climate, geography and vegetation data, to build environmental niche models in MaxEnt and dispersal models in MigClim to assess the impacts of climate change and dispersal ability on the range of H. chinensis. Based on the model results, we calculated the overlap between suitable habitats and agricultural wetlands.
Projected future potential suitable habitats for H. chinensis from 2021 to 2100 under four emissions scenarios. Classification of future potential suitable habitats was refined using ArcGIS 10.6 by maximum training sensitivity plus specificity thresholds (MTSS).
The models indicated that temperature was a key factor affecting H. chinensis distribution. Increasing temperatures positively correlated with habitat suitability, with suitable habitat expanding northward by 2060 while maintaining suitability in the southern parts of the range. We found a 25.18% overlap between the current potential suitable habitat of H. chinensis and agricultural wetlands. MigClim model indicated that H. chinensis might be able to track shifts in suitable habitats under climate change given a 15 km dispersal ability per generation. Climate change will likely expand suitable habitat for H. chinensis. Our predictions offer important guidance for the conservation of the species, especially for the integrated role of natural and agricultural wetlands such as rice paddies.
Projected overlap between the suitable habitat and agricultural wetlands under the current climate scenario for H. chinensis in East Asia. The overlap area was calculated using ArcGIS 10.6. A: Focus on Jiangsu, Anhui and Hubei in China; B: Guangxi, Guangdong and Hainan Island in China; C: Myanmar; D: Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam.
The lab’s latest publication started with a big green blob sitting next to a stream. The oversized leaf-colored lump was a Dennys’ large treefrog (Zhangixalus dennysi), a species of frog that was a real surprise for all of us there that night. The Chinese name for this species is 大树蛙, which translates literally to “big tree frog,” and these frogs certainly live up to the name, with the largest individuals exceeding ten centimeters in length. Their oversized feet and large toe pads are perfectly suited for a life in the trees, though the first one we encountered that night was hanging out next to the streambed. Their fingers and toes are even webbed to help them glide between branches.
The first Dennys’ large treefrog we encountered, photographed in situ by Kenneth Chin, a wildlife photographer and artist from Singapore who had joined us on the expedition.
Over several nights of surveys in the southernmost portion of Jiangsu Province in September 2023, the lab encountered several species of animal that we later realized had few or no previous records of in the province. All five of these species—four frogs and one snake—have larger ranges further south, but the extent of their distribution within Jiangsu Province was a mystery.
Four of the species encountered during our surveys. Photographs a, c, and d from Kenneth Chin; b from Zhenqi Wang.
The four frogs we encountered with limited documentation in Jiangsu Province: a) Dennys’ large treefrog (Zhangixalus dennysi) 大树蛙; b) white-lipped treefrog (Polypedates braueri) 布氏泛树蛙; c) broad-folded frog (Hylarana latouchii) 阔褶水蛙; d) Tianmu odorous frog (Odorrana tianmuii) 天目臭蛙. The snake (the brown spotted viper, Protobothrops mucrosquamatus, 原矛头蝮) is not pictured as it was less photogenic, having been killed and mutilated by people, unfortunately.
Using our own survey records, the existing locality records for these five species, and climate data on temperature and precipitation, we used environmental niche modeling to see how much other habitat in Jiangsu would be climatically suitable for these five species.
The resulting suitability map for the broad-folded frog (Hylarana latouchii)阔褶水蛙, one of the five species we modeled, with a view of its entire range on the left and a close-up of Jiangsu Province on the right. Green indicates the minimum predicted threshold for viable habitat, with yellow and orange indicating moderately and highly suitable areas.
The models indicated that, at least from a purely climatic standpoint, there is more viable habitat for all four frog species within Jiangsu, so perhaps in the future they’ll be found even further north than we found them. The model for the viper species didn’t show suitable habitat within Jiangsu, but as the climate warms this subtropical species may work its way further north anyway. To view the maps for the other four species or read more details, the full paper is free to read at https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.37.e117370.
Laboratory of Animal Behaviour and Conservation 