Deutsche Gesellschaft für Herpetologie und Terrarienkunde (DGHT)

What is DGHT?

The DGHT, German Society for Herpetology and Herpetoculture ("Deutsche Gesellschaft für Herpetologie und Terrarienkunde e.V.", www.salamandra-journal.com, www.dght.de), was founded in 1964 as a successor of the German herp group "Salamander" going back to the year 1918. One of the founders of DGHT was the famous German herpetologist Robert Mertens. As implied by its name, DGHT philosophy is to bring together professional scientists and amateurs, thus promoting their dialog at an international scale. This gives the society a unique strength currently uniting more than 7,000 members including several, in herpetology, internationally well acknowledged honorary members.
The society's mission is to contribute to both research on amphibians and reptiles and captive keeping and breeding. DGHT is strongly engaged in herpetological conservation and is accredited by the German Federal Nature Conservation Act. The society runs three funds: the Wilhelm Peters Fund dedicated to herpetological research, the Hans Schiemenz Fund attributed to assessing and protecting natural populations of amphibians and reptiles, and, in collaboration with the Zoological Society for the Conservation of Species and Populations (www.zgap.de), a fund supporting conservation activities to protect threatened amphibian and reptile species.
Since the 'Year of the Frog 2008', DGHT, in cooperation with the Association of German Zoo Directors (www.zoodirektoren.de), is involved in amphibian ex situ conservation efforts. Our activities especially unit conservation breeding projects run in Austria, Germany and Switzerland and aims at a joint venture of zoos and private keepers. One of the target species is the critically endangered CITES Appendix 1 newt, Neurergus kaiseri (Luristan newt), with currently more than 3,000 individuals, 85% of which captive-bred.
DGHT is divided into more than 50 subgroups; besides local and regional branches in Germany, Austria and Switzerland there are working groups which put particular focus on different herps, e.g. on anurans or chelonians, special topics (e.g. history of herpetology, veterinary science) or even more specialized on particular taxa, e.g. chameleons. Subgroups have their own meetings independent from the annual international meetings of the society combining herpetological science ("Deutscher Herpetologentag") and herpetoculturism, including herp travel reports, conservation, captive breeding etc. ("DGHT-Nachzuchttagung").
Among the print media of DGHT are "Salamandra – German Journal of Herpetology", a quarterly journal publishing scientific contributions in English in all fields of herpetology, listed under Current Contents and soon under the Science Citation Index (available online), "Mertensiella", a sporadically published supplement with special issues on particular topics (e.g. symposium volumes), "TERRARIA/elaphe", a colored quarterly German magazine reporting on different aspects of herpetology and herpetoculture, as well as internal political issues of DGHT. Furthermore, most of the working groups publish additional separate journals, e.g. “Radiata” (in English and German).