Local extinction of Bombina pachypus Bonaparte, 1838 in three stations: a 17 years survey in pSCI 'Poggi di Prata' (Southern Tuscany, Italy).

Apennine yellow-bellied toad (Amphibia, Bombinatoridae) is an Italian endemism distributed along the Apennine from the Po River to Southern Calabria. The species is declining throughout its range due to habitat loss, small population sizes and diseases. This species has been recorded at three localities in Grosseto (Southern Tuscany), where the last documented reproduction attempt dated back to 1998, but the species became probably extinct at these sites after 2004. The natural habitat of this species at these localities remained more or less the same in the 17 years of survey (1994-2011) and average year rainfall amount didn't substantially change. Few animals were found during the study period and this limited number of individual was probably not enough to warrant the sufficient survival of a viable population. Moreover, the great distances between the detected reproductive sites somehow might have limited dispersal.