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Will Cognitively Challenging Headstarted Amphibians with Ecologically Appropriate Stimuli Lead to Greater Repatriation Success?

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Will Cognitively Challenging Headstarted Amphibians with Ecologically Appropriate Stimuli Lead to Greater Repatriation Success?

Michael J. Lannoo 1 Vicky Poole 2 Tim Herman 3 Robert Hill 4 Allan P. Pessier 5 Ruth Marcec-Greaves 6 Mark Vassallo 7 David Vardukyan 7 Michael Andrus 7 Wynona Shellabarger 7 Brad Barr 7 Claire Lannoye-Hall 7 Nathan J. Engbrecht 8 Rochelle M. Stiles 9,*

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1
Indiana University School of Medicine—ISU, Terre Haute, IN 47809, USA
2
Fort Worth Zoo, Fort Worth, TX 76110, USA
3
Indoor Ecosystems, Whitehouse, OH 43571, USA
4
Zoo Atlanta, Atlanta, GA 30315, USA
5
College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA
6
Lincoln Children’s Zoo, Lincoln, NE 68502, USA
7
Detroit Zoological Society, Royal Oak, MI 48067, USA
8
Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Bloomington, IN 47401, USA
9
San Francisco Zoological Society, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 14 May 2026 Revised: 12 June 2026 Accepted: 18 June 2026 Published: 26 June 2026

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© 2026 The authors. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Ecol. Divers. 2026, 3(2), 10008; DOI: 10.70322/ecoldivers.2026.10008
ABSTRACT: The frequent failure of headstarting programs suggests we are overlooking important factors in amphibian reintroduction science. Since many repatriation efforts are in vain, such programs can become difficult to justify from a cost-benefit perspective (chronic failure also takes its toll on staff morale), ultimately working against the goals of conservation programs. The question of how to properly prepare amphibian larvae or juveniles for reintroduction and persistence in the landscape is of utmost importance. Here, we offer a previously unconsidered perspective that is predicated on the idea that amphibians, being vertebrates, have forebrain-based cognitive capabilities aligned along the nucleus accumbens-based reward system and the amygdaloid nuclei-based fear system. Experiences uploaded by the ventromedial pallium as memories are thought to be tagged as accumbens-based ‘good’ or amygdala-based ‘bad’, and stored as (relatively) long-term memories; as such, amphibians are said to be salient creatures. The necessarily nurturing nature of zoo husbandry protocols naturally works against young amphibians acquiring ecologically realistic life lessons, especially when these forebrain reward and fear circuits are developing. For example, in zoos, food provisioning eliminates the reward associated with searching for and then finding food, and the emphasis on survival in captivity means headstarted animals released into the wild have no opportunity to experience fear. Such under-stimulated reward/fear circuits poorly prepare headstarted animals for life in the wild. It follows that kindling this circuitry as it develops with ecologically relevant stimuli will better prepare animals for life following release into the wild. To the extent that realistic headstarting protocols call for sacrificing a few animals to enhance the experiences of the remaining many, they will no doubt be resisted by institutions. But we have two choices here: keep doing things the way we have been doing and expect different outcomes, or experiment with new ideas based on a broader understanding of these animals—ideas such as these we are now proposing—to improve the success of repatriation efforts.
Keywords: Reintroduction; Captive-rearing; Conservation; Release; Predator training; Survival; Zoo; Aquarium
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