Its very sad.
im not saying let every newbie in the game have a breeding a pair and wish them luck,
im saying why not let experienced keepers help with the program?
Makes sense to me not to put all your eggs in one basket when dealing with an endangered species.
And im sure the breeders who took up the challenge would make sure they did everything in their power to keep these little guys going.
Cheers DG
I remember having the same thoughts back when they were starting the Corroborree Frog breeding program. With most species you would be exactly right, let the private keepers have a few and quickly the population is safe, at least in captivity. However, this is not always the case with frogs, and in this case, the husbandry requirements are outside what most people can offer. Among other requirements, to breed these things you need a walk in fridge to cycle their temperatures.
I don't know of any private reptile keeper who has a walk in fridge to house cold climate animals, so there seems little point selling them to private keepers. If a private individual actually wanted to pay the $10,000 - $20,000 to set such a facility up for their own personal use, they would probably be allowed to have some if they wanted to jump through a few basic red tape hoops - put the money on the table to let them know you're serious about building a facility to keep cold-climate mountain frogs, and you'll probably get them. There is no commercial potential for them because if you need to keep them in a fridge (and they won't thrive next to your butter and leftovers by the way
) you can't have them on display, even if you do provide them with a dedicated fridge, so basically no one will ever want to keep one once they understand what is involved. Without the ability to sell any of the offspring to anyone, there is no point breeding them - they can't be released because of quarantine concerns, and the same things killing the existing wild ones will kill the ones you release anyway.
So, unfortunately this is a difficult species to deal with, and it doesn't fit the same pigeon hole as something like a Rough-scaled or Oenpelli Python which people can and want to keep and breed.