Mundo Azul


© Dos Winkel/ Stefan Austermühle / Mundo Azul

Location: Lake Titicaca, Peru

Height: 3,812 m

Maximum length of the lake: 230 kms

Average width: 50 kms

Total surface area: 8,300 km2

Maximum depth: 281 m

Titicaca Lake Map in Peru and Bolivia

Year of expedition: 2002

Participants:

Stefan Austermühle
Nina Pardo

Goal:

Find the endemic frogs of Lake Titicaca, as well as other endemic species of the lake, photograph and film them in their natural habitat.

Results:

The expedition was successful in finding and filming the frogs.
Expedition report

Background information about the lake and the frogs

The endemic sponges of Lake Titicaca

See pictures from the lake and the frogs
Download a mini-movie: diving with the frogs

We also were successful in finding the endemic aquatic sponge Balliviaspongia wirrmanni.

Learn more about the endemic sponges of Lake Titicaca

Background information about the lake and the frogs:

High altitude lakes are habitats with extreme living conditions:

low temperatures
low air pressure
intense evaporation
strong temperature variations between day and night
high radiation of ultraviolet and infrared light

Kaira frog on the bottom of Lake Titicaca (© Stefan Austermühle / Mundo Azul)

The high radiation only allows a few species of amphibians to live in altitudes higher than 3,000 m. Worldwide there are only a few members of the frog family Lepodactylidae that live in high altitudes: Telmatobius and Pleurodema.

Their adaptation to the extreme living conditions resulted in morphologic changes:

reduction of the lungs
organic and structural modification of the skin
changes in their reproduction cycle and larval development

In order to protect themselves, these frogs live under stones, in earth holes and under plants in wetlands, marshes, in rivers with pools and low flow of water as well as in the depth of the lakes, rarely coming up to the surface.

The frog populations live isolated from each other in small habitats that are frequently separated from each other by impassable zones. This causes the development of numerous biological and morphological variations. Therefore many local forms do exist that are hard to differentiate from each other, even for taxonomists.

The biology of these frogs being endemic to Lake Titicaca and being sacred to the local people, is still a mystery. The members of Mundo Azul are some of the very few people in the world that had the chance to dive in lake Titicaca and meet this incredible strange species in their natural habitat.

The local name for the frogs is "Kaira". According to their belief, the frogs are sacred and therefore do not form part of the regular food supply, like in many other areas of the Andes. They are never mistreated by the people. The frogs still play an important role in the religious practice of people around the lake.

When the weather stays dry, they abandon one or two frogs in small jars on top of a mountain. According to their belief, the frogs then will start "crying", calling for rain, which soon sets in. That makes the water in the jar flowing over and allows the frogs to return to the lake.

Sometimes frogs are used to cure diseases.

During the last years, people from other parts of Peru have started to buy frogs from fishermen and trade them to the coast, where they are killed by putting them alive in a mixer. The resulting fluid is sold as popular medicine.

Other important threats to their survival in Lake Titicaca are:

Contamination
Introduced predators
Habitat destruction
Climatic changes and higher levels of radiation

So far there does not exist any conservation effort or educational campaign in order to protect these rare animals. Even though Mundo Azul's expedition could, for the first time, document these incredible species in their natural habitat, there exists a great lack of information urgently needed in order to create conservation measures, such as information on their:

Taxonomy
Ecology
Actual distribution
Status and development of the populations
Impact of the threats

More funding is urgently needed, as the frogs are important species for the aquatic ecosystem of Lake Titicaca. They are also indicator species for the climatic changes and the impact of contamination.

Due to their cultural importance, the frogs may serve as a flag species for aquatic conservation in Lake Titicaca.

Aquatic sponges - a treasure in Lake Titicaca

Balliviaspongia wirrmanni is an animal that has been seen in the wild just by a handful of people and many of them might not even have recognized it as such. It is a sponge, a group of animals commonly known from the worlds coral reefs and being a great attraction for recreational divers. Still, many people are of the opinion that sponges are plants, but actually they do belong to a group of animals that have developed on our planet as one of the first animal species of all.

Balliviaspongia wirrmanni is a real biological treasure. It is one of the few species of aquatic sponges in the world and it is anatomically so different from other sponges, that scientists placed it in its own biological family. It only lives in Lake Titicaca where its presence can be traced back 7,000 years.

Maybe it does not appear to be the most attractive animal to many but definitely the loss of this species due to contamination and habitat destruction would be a tragic loss for humanity.