This week we welcomed a group of Golden Mantella from Chester Zoo.
Golden Mantella are a beautiful bright orange frog native a small area of swampy rainforest in Madagascar. These frogs have evolved to be very similar in appearance and behavior to the poison frogs of South America, in that are brightly coloured to warn others that they are poisonous. They get their poison from the insects they eat which includes mite, termites and ants.
These small frogs need healthy rainforest and clean freshwater which is rapidly reducing in the area they live in. They are sadly listed as critically endangered by the IUCN red list, this decline in their population is partly due to habitat loss caused by logging and agriculture.
In the future we hope to have a successful breeding colony of Golden Mantella here at Reaseheath Mini Zoo to help increase genetic diversity in captive populations.