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Mark Bakkers
I'm a chemistry student at the University of Utrecht, with a
specialty in molecular cell biology and infectious diseases. I
was raised with the ideas of animal conservation, which still is
a motivation for me to keep and protect animals.
As the years went past my interests moved from birds more and
more to amphibians, especially poison arrow frogs and later also
to salamanders and newts. Nowadays I focus mostly on Asian
Salamandridae, though I'm still interested in Asian turtles
and tortoises as well.
The most interesting thing about the crocodile salamanders, I
think, is the fact that there still is so much that we do not
know about them. There are probably numerous species out there waiting to
be discovered, but also the behaviour and evolution of these
animals intrigues me. I hope that in later years we've made a
difference in the future of these animals in the wild and in
captivity.
Examining a captured S. atra pasubiensis. © Wouter
Beukema
Wouter Beukema
At the moment I am studying Wildlife Management at the Van Hall
Institute, The Netherlands. Already from a young age I got
interested in herpetofauna, although mainly amphibians and
especially salamanders. This interest brought me to a large
number of European and Mediterranean countries to observe
species in the wild. During the years I got more and more
interested in the ecology and distribution of the many
salamander species in this area.
After
working in the field for two months with the critically
endangered Italian Alpine Salamander subspecies Salamandra
atra aurorae and S. a. pasubiensis, and some
private small amateur researches in Spain and Anatolia, I became
ever more interested in the species, their conservation and
their relation with the (a)biotic environment. I hope to pursue
research on these topics in the future.
The interest in Asian salamanders originated mainly from a
hobbyist view in earlier years, though evolved to a much deeper
interest in these species, mainly Crocodile Salamanders. There
is still so much that we don't know about these species, while
their habitat is diminishing. With the Tylototriton Project of
the Dutch Salamander Society and the creation of this website I
hope more interest and research possibilities will be created
for Asian salamanders.
Photographing Lyciasalamandra billae in SW Anatolia. ©
Philip de Pous |
