About to be released into bookstores : A Complete Guide to the Frogs of Southern Africa by Louis du Preez & Vincent Carruthers.

This new book is perfect for conservancies.  The book is sold with a CD containing the calls of most frogs of Southern Africa. Beautiful large photographs assist in identification as do the "Key ID Points".

Why bother with frogs

Amphibian population declines have troubled scientists in recent decades and the need to study and understand frogs is more important today than ever. Aquatic and terrestrial, predator and prey, with porous skins and shell-less eggs, frogs are critically sensitive indicators of the state of our environmental health. Their world-wide decline in numbers and diversity of species should be of considerable concern to everyone.

In the face of global amphibian population declines the IUCN and World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) proclaimed 2008 the Year of the Frog. Johannesburg Zoo, along with others around the world, responded to the amphibian crisis with public awareness campaigns, education projects and a captive breeding programme. Initially the Zoo will concentrate on developing techniques for breeding some of the more common South African species. Once the methods have been perfected they will be adapted for breeding rare species threatened with extinction in the wild.

Get this book online at a substantial discount.  Click on the image to the right, and then search for the title or enter ISBN 9781770074460 in the search box.

The book is being launched at the Johannesberg Zoo on 8 September 2009.