Recently, my students and I had a paper accepted to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Herpetology. This paper “Re-assessing the conservation status of an island endemic frog”, was based on three seasons of field work on the Caribbean island of Tobago, where we conducted surveys for an endemic species, the Bloody Bay Poison Frog (Mannophryne olmonae). This species was classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as “Critically Endangered” until our work revealed that it is actually reasonably common and widespread in suitable habitats. The conservation status of this species has now been downgraded to “Vulnerable”. Three Wooster grads contributed to this work: Travis Calkins (’12), Jess McQuigg (’13) and Aaron Novick (’12). All three are now in Ph.D. programs at Ohio State University, Miami University, and the University of Pittsburgh, respectively. Nice work folks!
