1. Dutch studygroup & KN list project Software for studbook
During the annual meeting, in September last year, and in an apparent unguarded moment of self-sacrifice, I have put myself up as the coordinator for KN list for the dutch salamander studygroup. This organisation unites both the Dutch & Belgian people keeping & studying salamanders. To my knowledge this is the largest group after the "unbeatable" German Urodela group.
1.1 What is the KN list ?
The KN list gives an overview of whom keeps which species and at which expertise level (starting group, breeding group, solitary animals, ..). The idea is to spread the information flow between the keepers and eventually assist (studbook)keepers to locate solitary animals and reconstitute breeding groups, especially for 'fragile species'. The information flow is both intended for positive as negative information. Whereas the first is readyly given, the 2nd is also important, albeit simply to avoid repitition. Currently I am in the painstaking phase of gathering the statistical information.
1.2 How ?
All of this is done with an relational database system/setup which is embedded within my studbook database. About a year or 3 ago I had a quick run over some studbook programms but found out that most require an individual identification of the animals. Hence they were more developped for studbooks of mammals and not quite interesting/practical for entering the about 200 offspring of a salamander species where individualisation is clearly impossible. As such I decided to set up my own, simple, but relational database system in which I can keep track of how things evolve. The strength of this system lies in segregated data setup (minimal maintenance) & the fact that it is embedded with other databases (species, regulatory database, membership, KN list, …). On top of the database lies a report painter which "binds" various databases and with whom one can compile the most detailed or high-level reports (the system has realtime drill down possibilities). I have started using this system first to keep track of the total scope of all my animals & later for the species for which I keep the studbooks (Hynobius dunni, Ambystoma macrodactylum and Typhlonectes natans). This system is built upon "events" which includes (among other) : "death", "breeding", "acquisition", "trade", "cannibalism","birth",… and in fact holds nothing but transactions. There is a possibility of entering genetic source data (locality origin) and due to bi-drecitional links genetic trees can (if need be) built, but is not yet developed (since there's no demand). The problem I'm facing is that most people don't really wanna set apart animals from the same species with different locality data ; their goal is rather wanting to breed/study and observe being the main focus.
Since I had been using this for about 3 years now, I have thus re-organised and added tables within this environment for keeping track of the KN lists, which resulted in a minor adaptation.
On the internet there are at least 2 other websites where you can enter or view studbook lists. One of this is on the Russian caudata website (www.caudata.ru at http://www.caudata.ru/registry ) . The other American oriented one is on www.caudata.org at http://uscr.caudata.org
2. Contacts for international herping
If you are interested into combining your amphibian interest and holidays there are organisations for eco-tourism. Nevertheless "salamander" oriented ones are still unknown to me. Over the last 2 months, 2 people did send me information that they are willing to share their field experience and knowledge, guiding people around. Having people with you, knowing the area, is always very helpful and I wouldn't wanna do so without this anymore, even if this costs some money. As long as fragile habitats/species are later not revisited for 'collecting' this can only be an enrichening experience.
Brad Norman lives in North California and is willing to guide people around in California. Having travelled myself with Brad I know his value and can only recommend his help, without which I would not have found some of the more relicted North Californian species, I fear. Currently Brad is studying several salamanderspecies in North California, among which Plethodon dunni. For information about prices and availability email him at brnorman “at” hotmail.com
Through Sergé Bogaerts I obtained the following information: "Rob Veen, herpetologist, biology teacher and former member of the Dutch Salamander Society, offers the possibility of being active with amphibians (and reptiles) in the field. Rob is already active for eight years with mapping and studying reptiles and amphibians just north of the Central Massive in France. Together with his wife, Carla, he is building a centre for ecotourism in Tigouleix (approximately 7 km under Crocq, for more information see www.tigouleix.nl). Field data are needed for a good protection, the area where Rob is working almost had no data prior to Rob's arrival. He was able to collect hundreds of new records on the inhabiting species. Fire salamander, Marbled newt, Crested newt (and their hybrids!) and Palmate newt are all found there. Besides that, special species like European treefrog, Yellow firebellied toad, Midwife toad, Sand lizard, Green lizard, Aesculapian snake and Asp viper occur there. Rob and Carla offer a complete field class for a small group (maximum 8!) wanting to learn more about amphibians and reptiles in the field. Main focus will be on amphibians. Under expert guidance of Rob dayy and night(!) excursions will be done. The exact programm depends on the partcipants, but the idea is to spend a day on Fire salamanders and another on Crested and Marbled newts. The excurions focus on mapping in unresearched areas. Rob will teach you how to recognize the species and their larvae and which demands they have for their habitats. So, it will be a week were education and field work are combined in an unique way where participants can learn a lot! Language will be dutch with english and french. This is planned in week 24, from Saturday 11th of June (day of arrival) until Saturday 18th of June (day of leaving). If they demand is high a second week can be arranged. The offer is including breakfast, lunch and diner. Sleeping can be done in tents on the quiet and small ecological camping site of Rob and Carla. Because all used water is cleaned in a reed filter biodegradable soaps and shampoos are available for the guests. the only thing you need to bring along are a tent, sleeping stuff, clothing, tooth brush, towels and of course a sunny mood! Boots, dipping net, torch and other field equipment is of course also very handy! But when you have announced yourself you will get more information on that. The journey to Tigouleix you have to organise yourself. Train travels can be picked up from the nearest station of Montluçon. Partcipants can perhaps travel together. Because the local vehikel for the field trips is a minivan the group is limited to 8 partcipants. More information : Rob or Carla: info “at” tigouleix.nl or rob_veen “at” hotmail.com"
3. Caecilians/Gymnophiona
During this spring (March 2005) some African caecilians were (again) imported into Belgium. Adult and young animals from both Herpele squalostoma & Geotrypetes seraphinii were offered. Due to a quick call I was able to reserve some specimens which have meanwhile been succesfully installed. Among the animals there was a 12 cm long juvenile Herpele, which for a moment kind of caused a stirr : was it born in captivity or imported this way ? Due to the size and color it is most likely imported however. So far the animals were fed with worms, waxmoth larvae. Mark Wilkinson, whom -as a result of a business trip- I was able to visit at the British National Museum, advised me to try to put some cooked fish in front of their holes. Since my Typhlonectes natans reayly eat shrimps, I tried this out with shrimps, all of which disappeared without a trace. During the stay in London I got to meet the almost complete Caecilian team, while nipping at a pint of beer. A quite international group of people. The day after Hendrik guided me through the museum's salamander collection (where I had a good look through the Hynobidae...) and also let me show the salamander and juvenile Ichthyophis he was nursing. Later when joining back with Mark, he let me peak over his sholder in one of the received emails : a newly discovered but still unnamed -quite bulky- caecilain had been discovered. Overall it seeems that is still much work on the shelves describing new and dropping some old species from the books. So, as known by many, the Gymnophiona area is maybe little, but still a quite open area, possibly leaving place to some unexpected findings and more stunning discoveries. Did you know that there actually is a caecilian where the juveniles feed from peeling off the nutritious skin of the female ? This is at the least a very unusual/original way of nursing it's youngs.
Also on caecilains J. Measy is performing research in Antwerp on the burrowing force of the caecilians. John was kind enough to offer me some of his more ecological articles, which I talk on very shortly below. I was invited to go and see the experiments, but unfortunatelly -due to a too busy time-table- unable to join him for this moment. I hope to be able to so eventually later…
4. Disease and losses (the VERY bad news)
This spring I suffered a major loss in the salamander collection. Although nothing is sure for now I assume I made a bad move while photographing the animals. For the purpose of taking some "quality" shots of various species I had set up a seperate tank with a clean window front. The older tanks in which I keep the animals all have scratches in the frontal-glass, which result in bad/undetailed shots, especially when using flashlights. After a period of 2 weeks, during which the tank got 'balanced' the animals were placed in it and about an hour or 2 later (when the animals were at their ease) the images were taken. Thereafter they were placed back in their original tank… So far so good. About one week later things started rolling … I started losing animals in all the groups that I had been photographing at a quite dramatic speed. The final balance is very dramatic : all the animals from Cynops cyanurus, Pleurodels nebulosus, Cynops pyrhogaster (Kii peninsula, with unusual color pattern), Triturus marmoratus, Triturus hybrid & Pachytriton D died of in a period of one week. Some of the animals were set on 60% alcohol solution so that they may still serve a purpose for institutions (sceletological research ?). Needless to say how I felt during those last weeks … I think I have never been as close to quit keeping salamanders. Lucky enough there is still a point 5 …
5. Breedings (the good news)
The weather this year was somewhat unusual : after a quite warm winter suddenly came a cold front for a week or 2 / 3 with lots of snow and some later freezing temperatures. After this we finally got a boost in tempertures again jumping from almost 0 to 15 °C in a day…. I was happy to see that the misery/losses I surfaced with some of the other species can be partly undone with the Hynobius breeding results. So far I have actually had eggdepositions of 7 species. For 6 of them this will most possibly result in the positive yields. I am still busy trying to get breedings of other Hynobius species.
5.1. Hynobius tokyoensis: When cleaning up the H. tokyoensis tank I gave the animals fresh water (which always has a positive triggering effect on reproductive behaviour in the males). Since this species normally is a late breeder I was going to install the necessary twigs in the tank later , however … 2 days later I discovered a freshlaid eggsac in the tank not far way from where I first spotted an active male clasping on the overhanging stones. The eggs were simply led on the floor of the tank and are 100% fertilised. So far the development goes well. http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?mcats=all&si=tokyoensis&what=allfields&name=&when=&whenterm=
5.2. Hynobius (leechii) quelpartensis: these animals were also quite active this year and laid a total of 7 eggsacs. All of their eggsacs are always attached to stones and they seem to have a preference for those places where the water softly flows over the eggsacs, attaching the eggsacs just underneath the watersurface in dark places on the pathway/corridor from the water back to the filter (which feeds a waterfall). 4 eggsacs developped fungi and died of quite quickly. The other 3 also had partially molding, depending on the eggsac some or most of the eggs survived. They are all close to hatching. Currenlty we still have another 50 juveniles left over from last year… so this species is certainly not in peril for what concerns captive care. http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?si=quelpartensis&perpage=12&sort=1&cat=all&ppuser=&friendemail=email@yourfriend.com&password=&x=0&y=0
5.3. Hynobius retardatus: The first to breed species this year were Hynobius retardatus. Currently I have 5 egg depositions, among which 2 are confirmed fertilised and well developping. The other 3 were but recently laid in less luminous places and as we speak still followed up. It is clear that the males -during the twighlight hours- return to depositing places each time again. Another important observation to mention is that the parents are effectively eating the eggs, tearing open the weakened eggsacs. This behavior has started when the larvae started moving/wriggling in the eggs. So with this species it seems to be important to remove the eggs after a period of time. However it may be important not to change the waterquality much since this seems to negatively affect the eggs. http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?si=retardatus&perpage=12&sort=1&cat=all&ppuser=&friendemail=email@yourfriend.com&password=&x=0&y=0
5.4. Hynobius dunni: In contrast with other years the females of this species were active quite late. The males were already in the water since mid january and on none of the frequent observations I found gravid males in the water. At first I thought I didn't have any females in the group anymore. But then at end of march I finally found (but) 3 eggdepositions. I think there may be 2 soltions for this (but currently this is pure speculation from my side. (1) Since due to healthproblems in the family I had less spare time in the winter/springperiod and had not been able to maintain the usual feeding shedule. It may well be that the females had not been able to build up/store the necessarry food-reserves for reproduction. (2) I effectively have less females in the group. The parental group counts about 23 animals, at least 13 of them are males. Currently I am still at the safe side since I still retain approx 40 juveniles of last year's breeding. The youngs of last and this year will thus remain here, until I have more certainty on the number of females. The eggsacs which have been deposited seem only to be partially fertilised. The "hyper-active" males have also torn most of the sacs to pieces and for this reason the eggs were moved outside the partental tank. This was done about 2 weeks after deposition (fertilisation should have been done by then).Removing eggsacs is a very tricky thing especially if you also change the waterconditions. At this moment I still have about 9 mature males clasping on twigs waiting for females. I have been able to record some of the reproductive behaviour of the males onto digital video. As the parental group is getting older I now start to have a good insight in the evolution of the color patterns. During the first 3 to 5 years the animals have that typically green/yellow color with those black spots. In the first years this is further enhanced with a blue iridescent dust pattern which occurs on most of my junile Hynobius (except H. retardatus). As they age the older animals develop a dull grey/brown coloration. Keeping up the studbook of this species start to be troublesome due to the (lucky) fact that the offspring has been quite widespread among hobbyists…and that with other keepers breeedings also occurred. This year they were also bred in France. http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?si=dunni&perpage=12&sort=1&cat=all&ppuser=&friendemail=email@yourfriend.com&password=&x=0&y=0
5.5. Hynobius okiensis: For this seldomn species I retain 3 animals, 2 older animals and one georgeous sexually mature juvenile female. So far I have discovered 2 eggdepositions, but they seem to be unfertilised. One of these depositions has been laid by the juvenile female. I am seriuosly starting to fear that I actually have 3 females. If this is true ever breeding this species seems very unlikely since recently it received the status 'critically endangered'…. http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?si=okiensis&perpage=12&sort=1&cat=all&ppuser=&friendemail=email@yourfriend.com&password=&x=0&y=0
5.6. Hynobius nebulosus: On 11 april (yesterday) the first egg depositions occurred. I am following this up closely, hoping to rear them again. I still retain 6 animals which were bred last year. My H. nebulosus is a scattered group consisting of animals of 3 different localities, 2 of which are known. http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?si=hynobius+nebulosus&perpage=12&sort=1&cat=all&ppuser=&friendemail=email@yourfriend.com&password=&x=0&y=0
5.7. Hynobius lichenatus or H. tsuensis: Aside from the solitary tanks (holding a large group of one species) I also have a quite large aquaterrarium (2 meter long on 60 cm wide and 40 cm high). This tank is split up in 2 almost equal part : a land area with moss , rocks and wood and a waterpart (about 7 cm high) with lots of stones. This part gets filled by a little waterfall. This tank is used for the compatible groups of animals of which I have but few specimens. This year I had setup both my H. lichenatus and H. tsuensis group (each are just 4 animals) in there. Recently a quite well fertilised eggsac was found in that tank. Both the eggsac and larvae were quite extensively photographed and I will continue to do so as development goes. The egg sacs had lengthwise grooves which is quite typicall for H. lichenatus, but the shape of the eggsacs looks quite different from what I have seen for this species and the larvae are quite long and have quite some yolk for a pond type larvae. Well I guess time will solve this uncertainty. Anyone feeling up to the challenge to id them can see the larval shots at the following link …. http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?si=lichenatus+%28%3F&perpage=12&sort=1&cat=all&ppuser=&friendemail=email@yourfriend.com&password=&x=0&y=0 Which you may compare with the next shots on Hynobius tsuensis http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/13/33296.html?1112981048 and Hynobius lichenatus http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/13/13445.html?1090601773 http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/13/17090.html?1087960088
5.8. Ambystoma mexicanum: Just yesterday my "brown" type axolotls , which are kept outdoors, have started laying the first eggs. I think the recent rainfall certainly has something to do with this. I will raise those outdoor to, so that by the fall thy will be of a good size. For this puprpose I have set plastic containers outside of 80 by 40 by 30. Normally they are used as water containers for construction work, now they have evidently another more interesting function. http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?si=mexicanum&perpage=12&sort=1&cat=all&ppuser=&friendemail=email@yourfriend.com&password=&x=0&y=0
6. Captive care observations and remarks
6.1. Incomplete breeding groups: For some Hynobius species I only have very few animals and as such I am trying to obtain more specimens to complete the breeding groups. This concerns H. kimurae (currently 2 animals), H. nigrescens (currently 3 animals among which one malformed juvenile) & H. naevius (currently 2 only). Some extra H.okiensis (males !) would also help to solve my breeding problem, but due to the status of the animals would be very unlikely to obtain.
6.2. Hynobius nigrescens: Currently I am still busy to rear 3 Hynobius nigrescens , a species which I would really like to try and breed. They have that very odd eggsac and show an interesting midwife behavior that I would at least like to photographically record.
6.3. Hynobius yiwuensis : the animals are looking quite good and the females are looking very thick. Last year I obtained and eggdeposition while setting them in the garden, but since they got to thin in the last fall, I have entered them again. Since then they took up more weight (eating tons of worms).
6.4. Ranodon sibiricus: The couple of impressive animals I have on loan for breeding purposes are doing well. The female had gained much weight over the former 3 months and recently suddenly lost weight. I will check up on the tank (eggs ?) this weekend but could not see anything with the flashlight. Here's a link to some shots on these bulky animals. http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?mcats=all&si=ranodon&what=allfields&name=&when=&whenterm=
6.5. Pachyhynobius: After inquiring with a Chinese herpetologist claiming that they might need deep and darker areas, the animals have been set over in a larger enclosure of about 80 by 110 cm groundsurface on 70 cm deep. This setup is filled with lots of stones which on the one hand makes follow up very difficult but hopefully may result in some breedings. My group of 11 is however quite fragile since I only have 1 male!! Seeking an extra male is one of my priorities in this species. Over the winter they were getting thin and at temperatures of approx 2°C they would not eat anymore. Currently they are regaining weight and some of the females are clearly loaded with eggs. At night it is usual to see the male sitting up on the highest rock under the water. It's an impresive animal with this odd head shape, so typically for this genus. At this moment the water is still cold and I see that the animals are reluctant to feed.
6.6. Ambystoma macrodactylum: So far this was one of my breeding flagships, but this year they have not (yet) bred, which is somewhat odd since this is normally the earliest breeder. Lucky enough they did breed with another Belgian keeper, so that the captive population is increasing again. This species seems however not to be an as 'hardy' species as the Japanese pondtype Hynobidae.
6.7. Paramesotriton deloustali: I originally was sheduled in for 3 females and 2 males in order to set up 2 breeding groups. However I turned out to obtain 4 females and one (young, but sexually mature) male. I had set the male and 1 of the females together in a seperate tank and retained the 3 other females in another tank. The 3 females show no aggressivity towards eachother in their heavyly planted setup. They even peacefully lay side aside feeding together! An unusual image for an animal that is thought of being one of the most aggressive species. Unfortunatelly (about a week after arrival) in the other tanks things went wrong…during the nigth the male had attacked the female quite fearcefully and her tail was damaged over about 40% of the length , almost being bare flesh. I put her out of the tank , but the damage had been done. She died shortly thereafter. In order still to give it some value, I have set her on 60% alcohol solution and she will be offered to a museum. Upon inspection of the male, it turned out he had a very nasty wound in his mouth making feeding quite troublesome. So I fed it little bits at a time with a higher frequency as usual. This helped and he survived. Currently the wound has entirely healed. I intend not to push my luck further this year and will keep both sexes seperate trying to put them together only when I get a larger tank at my disposal , maybe next fall? In terms of captivity they seem to do well. I have placed a lotof shots of the females on the internet. For obvious reasons I didn't want to stress the male further and as such I still need to make some shots of him. Yesterday he was sitting nicely high up on a rock, with a flashing white tail… Wish I could have taken that shot. http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?si=deloustali&perpage=12&sort=1&catall&ppuser=&friendemail=email@yourfriend.com&password=&x=0&y=0
7. Photographs website at Living Underworld
When my camera broke down - about a year ago - I decided to completely switch over to digital photography instead. A decision I have not regret since. In the past I always loved to document my observations with my own shots, meanwhile this has become another fascinating hobby, extending from the initial salamandershots to close up shots of other animals (mainly insects + some reptiles , …). Currently the collection continues to grow dramatically … and I hope to do so many more years.
Recently I have worked on a CD project with Exopet & entered various shots on multiple threatened salamanders for the IUCN project (red datalist). The IUCN had already used one of my Tylototriton shanjing pictures, which according to the emails I got later from various editors, met with some success.
Currently I'm almost ready to make the next step: a digital dslr. As a Minolta user, I have lots of lenses and a ringflash in the closet, but so far I was not able to use it on a digital dslr. Minolta had financial problems and only entered the dslr market 2 years after other brands. Unfortunatelly our wait was not rewarded and the price-tag for the D7 is quite higher than anticipated (the image stabilisation is told to drive the costs unfortunately 50% higher than other brands). It also is 'only' a 6 mpix one (stock agencies require at least 6 mpix , so no cropping possibilities left). Anyway with the new insect season coming on, I should probably rather bite through this green apple and get along with it…
7.1. Living Underworld : For People interested in amphibians the Living Underworld website of Jessica Miller is probably not unknown. It holds a lot of information on the whole salamander world. One of the things that might be less known is that you can become a member and store your nature/amphibian images in there. Jessica was as nice to offer me diskspace and as such I have started putting up most of my recent shots on it. Currently about 1.100+ shots have been uploaded and new shots are added at least once a week. Currently most are salamanders and newts (at least 700). Images carrying a fullproof taxonomic status are also added to the Amphibiaweb/Calphotos collection. Since the last Newsletter new shots on Lissotriton vulgarus , Lissotriton helveticus, Mesotriton alpestris (incl white larvae), Triturus carnifex (incl. white animals), Triturus marmoratus, Ranodon sibiricus , Paramesotriton deloustali , Cynops cyanurus, various Hynobius , some insect, reptiles and a few other nature related shots were added. Recently however a split up between the amphibian shots and my 'other' (mainly insect) shots was made. From now on the amphibian shots will still be settled at my old account, which is : http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=8. The other/insect shots will be setup on a different account : http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=41 On this account you will find , from time to time, 'unidentified'-status animals which we are trying to id. Currently only 60 shots are entered, but during the coming insect season I'm sure this will dramatically rise.
8. Articles & other new
In this section I try to talk about some new articles that I have been working on and some of the articles that I have recently received.
8.1. French Urodela Group (FUG): the members of the FUG have compiled a set of 3 very interesting articles on Euproctus asper. Part 1 talks about Description, distribution, habitat. Part 2 describes Keeping and Breeding and Part 3 talks on Historical data, status, cause of regression & bibliography. Some of the members of this group have kept this species for over 20 years, so be sure there's a lot of knowledge in there. The French version of the article is available online at the www.caudata.ru website. The English version will be available in Podarcis. http://www.caudata.ru/maillet/euproctus.htm
8.2. Currently I'm laying the last hands on an article for H. retardatus for the TI magazine, now working on the images. The H. dunni article has meanwhile been shaped into a care-sheet for the caudata.org website. The article shows quite a few pictures made by Tim Johnson (another Hynobius addict like me, living in Japan) of juveniles and animals reproducing. http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Hynobius/H_dunni.shtml
8.3. Plethodon dunni : Brad Norman is currently studying the distribution of Plethodon dunni in California and compiling the data in a yet unpublished article. I got to see the draft version in which 1 new locality has been found. One previous one, not verified since 2002, was verified with effort in 2004, 2005. And one historic spot verified from 1969 yielded no results. The Mill Creek specimen was not traced and as for now there are no surveys. No verified localities of Plethodon dunni are found South of the Smith River.
8.4. Triturus : the genus Triturus as we know it now will most probably be split up into 3 : Triturus / Mesotriton & Lissotriton. Mesotriton will hold all the alpestris subspecies , Lissotriton holds the other little species like vulgaris, boscai, italicus, montandoni. Triturus still holds the larger animals, being the crested, banded and marbled newts.
8.5. Also in Spain a new species has been described, Lissotriton maltzani. This is a separation from Lissotriton boscai. Since Lissotriton boscai in itself was already close to 'endangered' I'm curious as to how this will affect the status of this new species.
9. Interesting salamander or caecilain oriented websites
Still there are various discussion forums where people keeping, breeding and studying salamanders share their info. The best known in English is of course the caudata.org forum of John Clare,but there are other forums in Dutch and German. Hereunder I give you the urls of all 3 …
www.caudata.org : for the English speaking/writing audience. This is one of the longest around and is quite heavily visited with people from all around the world. It holds several moderators & editors, so it is (also) the work of a well motivated group of people. I also hold a personal webpage there with links to my other articles.
www.salamanders.tk setup for the Dutch speaking salamander keepers by one of the members of the Dutch studygroup, which holds most Dutch & Belgian keepers. This website alos holds a forum and there are close to 80 people active.
www.ag-urodela.de : for the German speaking audience. This is in fact the website of the German studygroup, which also organises the annual Gersfeld meetings.