This book frames amphibian welfare relative to their free-living biology. Notwithstanding their established roles as sentinel species and experimental models, amphibians remain underrepresented within the body of systematic animal welfare science. The present volume redresses this gap through a comprehensive synthesis of extant knowledge on amphibian welfare across anthropogenic contexts, encompassing field-based manipulations and ex situ laboratory models.

The expert authors articulate major welfare challenges over human-amphibian interfaces including cultural and utilitarian attitudes that influence policy and practice, field and laboratory protocols affecting stress physiology and survival as well as infectious diseases that compromise individuals and populations. Moreover, the chapters cover ethical dilemmas in managing invasive species, husbandry requirements for the animals´ needs in captivity, refinement opportunities within scientific research, and the status of experimental surrogates including in vitro models.

Collectively, these contributions position amphibian welfare as a connection spanning ecotoxicology, conservation translocation, and regulatory toxicology, where targeted empirical advances in welfare state validation, captivity effects, and welfare-economy trade-offs remain imperative. As such, this volume equips researchers, veterinarians, regulators, and educators to operationalize amphibian welfare science. It is further an essential reading for amateur herpetologists, professionals in industries and institutions involved in environmental issues and nature conservation.

Isabel Lopes

Isabel Lopes obtained her PhD in Biology from the University of Coimbra. Since 2007, she has been a researcher at the University of Aveiro, where she also serves as a member of the Committee Responsible for Experimentation and Animal Welfare. Her research focuses on ecotoxicology, ecological risk assessment (ERA), and the development of tools aimed at minimizing uncertainties in ERA, as well as reducing and replacing the use of animal experimentation. In particular, she concentrates on studying the hazards that environmental disturbances may pose to both aquatic and terrestrial biota, including in different life stages of amphibians. She has participated in numerous national and international research projects and is actively involved in international scientific networks.

Susan Hazel

Susan Hazel is a veterinarian who has taught animal welfare and behaviour since 2006 at the University of Adelaide in the School of Animal & Veterinary Science. She has over 100 peer reviewed publications and has supervised more than 30 Honours and PhD projects. Susan’s main research interest is in optimising animal-human interactions for all species.

Manuel E. Ortiz-Santaliestra

Manuel E. Ortiz Santaliestra is Associate Professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha and Deputy Director of the Institute for Game and Wildlife Research (IREC), where he leads the Wildlife Toxicology group. He earned his PhD in Biology at the University of Salamanca, and subsequently worked at the Universities of Wisconsin-Madison, Aveiro and Koblenz-Landau. His work focuses on wildlife ecotoxicology from an integrative perspective, conducting research to support the environmental risk assessment process and using terrestrial vertebrates as study models. He was engaged as member of the EFSA working group that elaborated the Scientific Opinion on amphibians and reptiles and has recently led the COST Action PERIAMAR on pesticide risk assessment for these fauna groups. He is currently implementing several EU-funded projects that aim at progressing towards a holistic, landscape-based approach of the environmental risk assessment of chemicals for terrestrial biodiversity.