Martin Mere WWT Endangered Species Breeding Unit

[DesertRhino150]

I have recently been looking up information about the Endangered Species Breeding Unit that was at Martin Mere WWT, I have not seen it discussed elsewhere on the forum. Although it was on the WWT site, the Unit seems to have operated independently of the Trust. There was a very strong collection of species, with a focus on amphibians. The list of species I have found mentioned includes:

- 40 species of newt and salamander; including possibly the first instance of captive breeding of the Pyrenean brook salamander Calotriton asper
- Rare anurans such as Mallorcan midwife toad, tomato frog and yellow mantella
- Chinese crocodile lizard
- Several species of threatened chelonian
- A number of rare fish (especially consisting of Mexican livebearers and Lake Victoria cichlids)
- Two species of Partula snail
- Several species of rare native invertebrate such as ladybird spider, hazel pot beetle, tadpole shrimp, Roman snail and Kerry spotted slug

Unfortunately the curator of this collection, Patrick J. Wisniewski died in 2008 and I cannot find any details of the Unit after that date. Does anyone know what became of the collection; is the Unit still in place or has it been dispersed to other collections?

Most of the information mentioned above comes from the obituary included below:
http://www.izn.org.uk/Archive/366/366.pdf

 

[Kakapo]

Ladybird spider??????? Did you mean Paraplectana coccinella??????? Really???????? It was one of my wishlist species (in the thread "Zoo animals that you want to see and haven't yet")

I know what a tadpole shrimp is, but for the others I had to look in Google for know the names. The "hazel pot beetle" resulted to be nothing less than Cryptocephalus coryli !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's one of the Cryptocephalus that I have no photos of, and I have a soft spot for this genus. But they really will to breed them? Keep in mind that Cryptocephalus larvae are myrmecophilous, they must be quite difficult to rear...

 

[DesertRhino150]

Ladybird spider??????? Did you mean Paraplectana coccinella??????? Really???????? It was one of my wishlist species (in the thread "Zoo animals that you want to see and haven't yet")

I rather suspect that ladybird spider refers to Eresus sandaliatus, which has been bred in captivity quite a bit in the UK.

I know what a tadpole shrimp is, but for the others I had to look in Google for know the names. The "hazel pot beetle" resulted to be nothing less than Cryptocephalus coryli !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's one of the Cryptocephalus that I have no photos of, and I have a soft spot for this genus. But they really will to breed them? Keep in mind that Cryptocephalus larvae are myrmecophilous, they must be quite difficult to rear...

If the Arkive page for Cryptocephalus coryli is to be believed, captive-bred animals of this species were used in reintroductions at two sites in Lincolnshire in 2000 and 2001. It seems that breeding programme was done by English Nature.

 

[zoofari]

I have recently been looking up information about the Endangered Species Breeding Unit that was at Martin Mere WWT, I have not seen it discussed elsewhere on the forum. Although it was on the WWT site, the Unit seems to have operated independently of the Trust. There was a very strong collection of species, with a focus on amphibians.

Unfortunately the curator of this collection, Patrick J. Wisniewski died in 2008 and I cannot find any details of the Unit after that date. Does anyone know what became of the collection; is the Unit still in place or has it been dispersed to other collections?

The wife of the gentleman is an aquaintence of my wife, when he died she took over the collection. However she had to vacate the premises at Martin Mere, as far as we know she still has the collection or at least part of it. She tried to find a university to take some of the collection, London zoo showed some interest in the frogs, but she declined, not sure of the reason why. Hope this helps.

 

[zoofari]

The wife of the gentleman is an aquaintence of my wife, when he died she took over the collection. However she had to vacate the premises at Martin Mere, as far as we know she still has the collection or at least part of it. She tried to find a university to take some of the collection, London zoo showed some interest in the frogs, but she declined, not sure of the reason why. Hope this helps.

 

[Kakapo]

Ah, that makes sense, an Eresus is much more expectable than a Paraplectana.
I hope to find the Cryptocephalus coryli some day in my trips to Pyrenees In my city the only species to be found is Cryptocephalus rugicollis, but the coryli is so distinctive and lovely!

 

[Paradoxurus]

I seem to recall that an early edition of ZOO! magazine contained a review of the ESBU at Martin Mere. Might be worth looking that up.