Indicators for Population Monitoring of Telmatobius Species (Anura: Telmatobiidae) from Central Peru

There are successful cases of biological data collection by citizen scientists that have helped in the decision-making process for species conservation. The objective of this study was to develop a comprehensive protocol to be used by herpetologists and citizen scientists for population monitoring of two aquatic frogs in central Peru. We developed a scientific monitoring protocol to collect information on the population ecology of Telmatobius macrostomus and T. brachydactylus. Subsequently, this protocol was adapted for community monitoring, and later validated in the field by herpetologists, park rangers, and citizen scientists. Herein, we present the results of a bimonthly pilot study conducted between August 2019 and February 2020. The results of this monitoring were used to standardize indicators to (1) examine the amount of time and number of evaluation units (EUs) required to encounter different developmental stages of each species and (2) test if the unique spot patterns of adult frogs can serve as a tool for identifying individuals. Overall, T. brachydactylus EU survey times were approximately 30 minutes less than those for T. macrostomus. The average time for surveying each EU type was 87 minute/person for T. brachydactylus and 112 minute/person for T. macrostomus. There were no significant differences between bimonthly survey times and abundance with respect to the months and physical variables (P > 0.05). Additionally, we did not observe a difference between the abundance of different developmental stages and survey month. A sampling effort of 4 EUs predicts an 80% (3.21 ± 1.11) and 82% (3.28 ± 0.82) chance of detecting the four developmental stages of T. brachydactylus and T. macrostomus, respectively. Regarding the use of body spot patterns to identify individual adult frogs, a success rate of 80% and 85% was obtained for T. brachydactylus chin and dorsal area of the body, respectively, while for T. macrostomus it was 65% for the chin and 60% for the dorsal area of the head. The addition of these standardized indicators into the monitoring protocol should increase the quality of data collected by citizen scientists, inform more rigorous scientific studies, and contribute to the program's cost savings.