Assessing body condition in amphibians can provide early signs of disease or can be used as part of ongoing population health monitoring. Amphibians represent diverse species that may preclude an easily applied and accurate scoring system, but amphibian body condition indexes have been used to identify reproductive activity, compare habitat types, and evaluate movement behaviors in wild amphibians.2,4,6 Additionally, body condition has been shown to negatively correlate with physiological stress, and decreases in condition have been linked to global warming trends.3,5 Patterns of lipid deposition have been described in many amphibian species, and this information can be applied to management of captive amphibian management.1 This poster details application of body condition scores in the management of a large dendrobatid frog collection in a zoological setting.
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