Project: Monitoring threatened Sardinian cave salamanders
Acronym: Sardinian Cave Salamanders Monitoring
Period: 2023-2025
Status: Ongoing / completion phase
The project aims to develop an improved and effective monitoring protocol for Speleomantes sarrabusensis, classified as Critically Endangered, and for other threatened Sardinian cave salamanders, including Speleomantes supramontis and Speleomantes flavus.
Sardinian cave salamanders are endemic amphibians restricted to isolated mountain areas, where they use subterranean habitats for breeding and sheltering, while also exploiting forest and Mediterranean maquis habitats during favourable periods. Despite their conservation relevance, several aspects of their ecology remain poorly known, especially their epigean activity outside caves.
The project includes field surveys under suitable seasonal and meteorological conditions, using repeated linear transects to estimate distribution, detectability, abundance and ecological requirements. The collected data will support site occupancy models and N-mixture models, contributing to a long-term monitoring protocol and future conservation planning.
Sardinia, Italy:
Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund
Images from the project
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