Efforts to discourage poachers from plucking poisonous frogs from the Colombian jungle have made a conservationist frog breeder well known among collectors in the U.S., who are seeking legally traded specimens.
An Oophaga lehmanni "Red" stands at the “Tesoros de Colombia” frog breeding center in Cundinamarca, Colombia, Monday, May 20, 2019. The species, that is poisonous in the wild but in captivity does not consume the food it needs to become toxic, is so rare that collectors refer to it as "the holy grail.
“We can’t control the fact that in some countries it is legal to own these animals,” Lozano said. “But we want to make sure that collectors buy animals that are raised in captivity and are legally exported.” “We want prices to go down so much that it’s no longer profitable for traffickers to sell these frogs,” Lozano explained.
Indonesia allows the export of 3 million captive-bred Tokay Geckos to global pet markets each year. But weak regulation has given corrupt companies the opportunity to sell off wild Geckos as Geckos bred in captivity, said Chris Shepherd a conservationist who worked in South East Asia for two decades with TRAFFIC, an environmental group.
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