Acknowledgements

 

First and foremost, I want to express my particular thanks to some Chinese scientists and friends who helped me realize this book: Professor Liang Fei, the former director of the Department of Herpetological Research at the Chengdu Institute of Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his wife, Professor Changyuan Ye, formerly also of the Chengdu Institute of Biology, who both worked on amphibians for many years. I would also like to express my deep gratitude to Emmanuel Jelsch and Jérôme Maran for their guidance, enthusiastic encouragement, and useful criticism; David Oudjani for his advice and assistance with keeping my progress on schedule. I thank the French Urodela Group (FUG) and the AG Urodela (DGHT/Germany), L'Association du Refuge des Tortues (A.R.T., France), and the Société Herpétologique de France (SHF) for their support. My gratitude furthermore extends to my good friend Mian Hou, who helps me with this project through his research in China and our moments together while working in the field. He is also co-author of the chapter on T. verrucosus. I would like to extend my thanks to the technicians at the Department of Biology at the University Pasquale Paoli in Corsica; the Chengdu Institute of Biology (Sichuan); the Kunming Institute of Biology; and the Zhejiang Natural History Museum (China); Cathy Gibault at Thoiry’s Zoological Park who gave me the opportunity to work with her team for a little while; and the Department of Zoology in Moscow and Nikolay Poyarkov for their availing resources required for running my project. I thank Shruti Sengupta to be co-author of the chapter on T. verrucosus and especially for the Himalayan region of India.

I thank also the Bleustein-Blanchet Foundation, especially Anne De La Baume, Béatrice Netter-Leval and Nathalie Royer, who helped me a lot with obtaining a grant for this study in Asia. I thank Elisabeth Badinter, Arthur Sadoun, Mohed Altrad, and Allain Bougrain-Dubourg for their giving me the opportunity to win a special prize as a laureate of the foundation in 2015. I also thank Edition Chimaira for their input and assistance with this book.

My special thanks are furthermore extended to numerous friends and colleagues whom I gratefully acknowledge for their help and taking an interest: David Wake, Alain Dubois, Richard Highton, David Frost, Hermann Schleich, Robert Thorn, Richard Griffiths, James Petranka, Kentwood Wells, Wu Yunke, Zhiyong Yuan, Joachim Nerz, Nguyen Quang Truong, Thomas Ziegler, Daode Yang, Karthikeyan Vasudevan, Xiao-mao Zeng, Xie Feng, Youhui Shen, Pipeng Li, Kelian Yang, Sheng Zheng, Daniele Seglie, Jie Wang, Jean-Claude Beetschen, Karthikeyan Vasudevan, Janmejay Sethy, Brij Kishor Gupta, Françoise Serre-Collet, Somphouthone Phimmachak, Sylvie Raffaëlli, Somaye Vaissi, Mozafar Sharifi, Dzung Trung Le, Alexandre Teynié, Chung Wei You, Xu Zhang, Ming-Wang Zhang, Zhou Hang, Porrawee Pomchote, Truong Nguyen, Somsak Panha, Wichase Khonsue, Thien Tao Nguyen, Phung My Trung, Avinash Bhujel, Kaushik Deuti, Karthikeyan Vasudevan, Brij Kishor Gupta, Pham Van The, Daniel Escoriza, Cathy Gibault, Gerlach Uwe, Sergé Bogaerts, Max Sparreboom, Nikolaï Poyarkov, Olivier S. G. Pauwels, Theodore Papenfuss, Miguel Vences, Aldemar Acevedo, Ben Tapley, Froglog, Dave Strasser, Xiaoming Wu, Xiaomao Research Group, Gabriela Parra-Olea, Mario Garcia-Paris, Hans Joachim Hermann, Jean Lescure, Jing Che, James Hanken, Jinzhong Fu, Janalee Caldwell, Jennifer Macke, Sebastian Steinfarz, Thomas Bille, Frank Pasmans, Liao Changle, Bryan Stuart, Masafumi Matsui, Kanto Nishikawa, Sathyabhama Das Biju, Jürgen Fleck, Gustavo Espallargas, José Tatay, Natcha Phuangsombut, Spartak Litvintchuk, Mikhaïl Bagaturov, Arlo Hinckley, Tatjana Dujsebayeva, Jia-jun Zhou, Bryan Wu, Geer Zhang, Paul Bachhausen, Jihène Ben-Hassine, Alex Tsukanov, Mike Linley, Franck Deschandol, Marta Bernardes, Jordi Schetino, Gernot Vogel, David Christinaz, Rafael Fonol, Gustavo Espallargas, Juan Manuel Reyes, Arnaud Jamin, Georges Decome, François Maillet, Vincent Descoteix, Jean-Claude Concaro, Jean Michel Collet, Rachida Collet, Jean Michel Terrien, Cyrille Le Sager, Lionel Serra, Benjamin Monod-Broca, Henry Janssen, Tim Johnson, Kevin Messenger, Markus Auer, Ming-Jieh Lin, Marc iszewski, Marc Vallin, Sébastian Voitel, Nicolas Lopez, Fred Braux, Yohan Grillot, Henk Wallays, Christopher Michaels, Derk Oorburg, Mattias Müller, Wouter Beukerma, Tarik Stark, Michael Woj, Thomas Shöttler, Ke Jiang, Kamil Szepanski, David Gebel, Christophe Hainaux, Virginie Hainaux, Patrick Steinberger, Andy Baker, Sébastien Saguer, Jean-François Crave, Andres Goicochea Alvaro Vera, Christophe Franke, Thibaut Crémel, Andrey Tetorkin, Vinicius Gonçalves, Romain Martzolf, Florent Vidal, Thibault Cremel, Sullivan Ruyer, Carmen Tchero, Clément Monnier, Kacper Nowacki, Laura Ballarin, Gwendoline Marcorelle, Serge Marcoccia, Samuel Lisz, Djemya Flessel, Jean-Marcel Goger, Gen Li, Chen Guo, Raïna Ali.

Finally, I wish to thank my parents and my family for their support and encouragement throughout my studies.

 


Pr. Mian Hou & the author (China).

Pr. Xie Feng, the author, Pr. Liang Fei & Changyuan Ye, China, 2014.

Dr. Wichase Khonsue, Pr. Porrawee Pomchote & the author (Thailand).

The French Urodela Group (FUG) in 2015.

Jean Raffaëlli, the world famous specialist of Salamanders (Mexico).

The author (left) with Dr. Cathy Gibault at Thoiry Zoological Park, Paris, 2015.

David Oudjani & Jérôme Maran (FUG).

Gustavo Espallargas, Emmanuel Jelsch & Jean Raffaëlli (Germany).

AG Urodela symposium 2015