**1. Introduction**

This chapter introduces the first annotated status of breeding ecology and conservation status of amphibians in Kenya. The chapter provides a review of recent surveys on the status of habitats and population of amphibians as well as drivers of their population change in areas within the global biodiversity hotspots in Kenya. It also presents the possible course of action for reversing the trend of amphibian decline. The names of most species are given in scientific and where local names are used, explanation is provided. A literature survey and primary data are combined to provide a comprehensive review of the status of Kenyan Amphibians.

### **2. Research methodology**

The population status of amphibians in Kenya was assessed in major biodiversity hotspots that include coastal forests, inland semi-arid areas, central region of Kenya, Western, and lower Eastern. The coastal forests of Kenya are part of the Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa biodiversity hotspot. The distribution of amphibians on the costal forest was assessed in south costal forest in Shimba Hills National Reserve (SHNR) Ecosystem, other central areas of the coast (Rehabilitated quarries near Mombasa) and inland drier forests in Taita Hills Ecosystem. In the leading biodiversity hotspot(s) ecological surveys were conducted for 60 days in the months of dry season and another 60 days wet season.

The sampling was done along six transects distributed equally both in protected and unprotected areas. The unprotected parts were characterized by human activities ranging from agro-ecosystems to settlements and infrastructure. During the fieldwork, visual encounter surveys (VES) [1, 2] were used where all potential microhabitats of the species were searched. The survey was conducted along the river transects (1000 m) but the sampling protocol was adjusted in some areas with terrain limitation or pools of water where line transect was limiting. The number of individuals encountered within 10 m of each side of the transect line was captured, marked, morphometric/biometric and population attributes recorded. Marking was done using toe clipping as adopted by [3]. In other biodivrsity hotspots in Kenya, the status of amphibians were documented using the previous surveys conducted by other scholars and ugmented by the review of their IUCN status online.
