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Endangered Miss. frogs get a break in the weather

Rachel Rommel — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer Sat Oct 11, 1:47 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Pick up a Mississippi gopher frog and it covers its eyes with its forefeet, like someone afraid to see what's coming next. And for at least a decade, it's had a good reason not to look.

This year, for a change, nature gave a bit of a break to one of the nation's most endangered species.

The frogs breed only in ponds so shallow they dry up in summer. Hot, dry springs have stranded tadpoles every year since 1998, when 161 froglets hopped out of Glen's Pond in coastal Harrison County, Miss.

The pond held water longer this year. And 181 tadpoles survived a deadly parasite, made it through metamorphosis and headed into the surrounding DeSoto National Forest.

Biologists saved seven generations. They wash some eggs in well water, apparently removing the parasite, hatch them in a lab and put the tadpoles in screen-covered outdoor tanks.

Scientists believe fewer than 100 mature adults live in the wild. Five zoos — in New Orleans, Memphis, Detroit, Miami and Omaha, Neb. — have another 75 frogs.

"Our efforts have managed to stave off likely extinction but there's a long way to go," said Joe Pechmann, an associate professor of biology at Western Carolina University who has studied the frogs since 2002.

Mississippi gopher frogs once lived in longleaf pine forests from western Alabama to southeast Louisiana. Timbering all but eradicated those forests.

Scientists estimate the population from those breeding each year. This year, 50 came to Glen's Pond. Thirty of them were tank-raised; the other 20 had hatched in 2001 and 1998.

Other counts are next to impossible: the frogs live underground, in stump holes and burrows dug by other animals.

They have other oddities. Their breeding call sounds like snoring. And, rather than the smooth backs of many frogs, theirs have bumps which secrete a bitter, milky fluid. Pechmann thinks their "see-no-evil" pose may protect frogs' faces until predators taste the liquid and drops them.

Mississippi gopher frogs face dangers common to all amphibians — predators that eat most of their young, human destruction and pollution of their habitat, and parasites more devastating to amphibians than the Great Plague was to humans.

Scientists estimate that the world has lost up to 170 frog species just in the last decade, and another 1,900 are threatened.

Until 2004, when a much smaller colony was found and a third was created, Glen's Pond was the Mississippi gopher frogs' only known breeding spot.

"People look at temporary ponds and they think there's something wrong with them," either filling them in or digging them deeper for fish ponds or cattle watering holes, Pechmann said. "But the reality is, there's a lot of species such as gopher frogs that depend on temporary ponds; they can't live anywhere else."

The ponds are on ridges, prime development targets. Scientists worry that a housing development near Glen's Pond could keep the U.S. Forest Service from making controlled burns needed by the forest and its animals. But Nathan Watson, senior vice president of development for Tradition Properties Inc., said it is making firebreaks and other provisions to let the burns continue.

No tadpoles survived drought in 1999 or 2000. In 2001, authorities called the National Guard. Crews trucked in water and dug a well from which water was pumped into the pond.

Pechmann first set up tanks in 2002. Since then, scientists have released about 2,000 tank-raised froglets at Glen's Pond and another 3,000 or so at a colony scientists are starting. It's on land owned by The Nature Conservancy, which also owns a 292-tract including the second natural colony.

Researchers used the pump at Glen's Pond in 2005 but only 42 frogs emerged, Pechmann said.

The species' first captive breeding was in March, when in vitro fertilization produced 93 tadpoles at the Memphis Zoo. They all died, apparently from the parasite that kills tadpoles in Glen's Pond. A second lab-fertilized group hatched recently, said Andy Kouba, head of the Memphis zoo's research department.

"We'll probably end up trying to breed them several more times this fall," he said.

Twenty-one egg masses were laid in Glen's Pond this year, and one each in the other two, biologist Mike Sisson said.

Each year's froglets get marked. This year, 480 are in large individual enclosures to learn whether new colonies could make it in less than ideal habitat.

The Audubon Zoo in New Orleans got 36 tadpoles. Sixteen survived.

"They were smaller than a pea when we put them in the tanks," said Nick Hanna, assistant curator for reptiles and amphibians.

The inch-long froglets may grow to 3 1/2 inches.

Any chance of breeding is years away. Males may mature sexually in less than a year, but it can take up to four years for females to become fertile.

The wild froglets alone would nearly triple the wild population if all of them survived.

That won't happen.

"Those little frogs are snack food or finger food for a lot of things in the woods," Sisson said. "The vast majority ... will not make it to adult frog. That's the nature of the business if you're an amphibian."

___

On the Net:

Association of Zoos and Aquariums publication on gopher frogs: http://tinyurl.com/5xh6w9

Audubon Zoo: http://www.auduboninstitute.org

The Memphis Zoo: http://www.memphiszoo.org

14-Oct-08 3:00 PM

Amphibians 'afloat and fighting'

Rachel Rommel — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Amphibians 'afloat and fighting'

By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Barcelona

Almost three years ago, I sat in a hotel conference room in Washington DC and heard that it would cost nearly half a billion dollars to save the world's amphibians.

Cheaper than the Iraq invasion, tiny compared to the Wall Street crunch - but a lot of money nevertheless.

Here at the World Conservation Congress are many of the scientists who were present that sunny Washington morning and released their prescription for salvation, the Amphibian Conservation Action Plan.

So three years on, it is time to ask: how are you doing?

First, the money; did it show up?

"It's hard to say, because there have been a lot of other initiatives as well such as Amphibian Ark, which has a lot of facilities," says Claude Gascon, co-chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Amphibian Specialist Group and a senior scientist with Conservation International (CI).

"But from our perspective we've probably had about $10m which has gone directly into tip-of-the-iceberg sites that have been very important for conserving the last of a species."

On firm ground

So this is how last-ditch conservation efforts can work for amphibians.

You go to a region where there is a strong chance that certain species will wink out of existence, and you get your hands on a piece of land where they still live.

In Colombia, a link with two other groups, the American Bird Conservancy and ProAves, enabled the purchase of a 1,100-hectare site. Then, money went in for rangers and a bit of infrastructure and training.

For an initial investment measured in tens of thousands of dollars, the last remnants of a few species can be saved.

In Sri Lanka, the charity struck luck when the government bought patches of forest on an old tea plantation. Any conservation deal has a much higher chance of success when the government and the local community are on board.

Mike Hoffman, another scientist with joint IUCN and CI accreditation, highlights the value of meetings that have brought together expertise from the global and local levels.

"In some of the sessions we've arranged, there's a difference of 50 years between the oldest and youngest people in the group," he says.

"And you can just imagine the information they release, whether the frogs are in a protected area, whether they adapt well or are totally dependent on a pristine forest biome, whether they've been undergoing rapid decline."

Out of the wild

By the time the Amphibian Conservation Summit convened in Washington, the Global Amphibian Assessment had already shown the parlous state of the creatures: one-third were on the threatened species list and 165 species were already believed to be extinct.

An estimated 500 species, it was estimated, could not be conserved in the wild. The only solution was to take them out of their habitat, put them somewhere safe, and wait until conditions returned to something like normal on their home patch.

There are probably as many species waiting to be discovered as we know of now
Claude Gascon, IUCN/CI

This is where Amphibian Ark comes to the fore. A joint initiative between IUCN and the World Association of Zoos and Aquaria (Waza), it numbers many zoos and other institutions that are prepared to give shelter to the endangered animals.

It is not as simple as it might sound. Habitat, moisture, temperature, humidity and prey have to be maintained; water has to be kept free of disease.

It is far from an ideal solution. Recent research demonstrates that some animals lose their robustness and resilience in a captive breeding environment as natural selection stops winnowing, and the range of environmental conditions is constrained.

But with species such as the Wyoming toad (Anaxyrus baxteri), whose natural waters are infested with the lethal fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, it is at present the only option.

The Atlanta Zoo has even built a portable captive breeding kit facility that can be shipped and used on site.

Golden gone

The chytrid fungus is probably the most serious acute threat to amphibians. In some places, it has basically clear-cut species in a matter of a few years.

It can be cured in captivity; the antibiotic chloramphenicol is one agent that does the trick, and seems to give amphibians some residual protection afterwards. But treating entire water systems in the wild is another matter.

Only discovered a decade ago, chytridiomycosis is still a poorly understood enemy.

"In some patches, we're finding individuals that have survived, whereas with others like the golden toad it does seem to be all over," says Russ Mittermeier, CI's president.

"It seems like salamanders are more resistant, and why should that be? So we still have a long way to go."

The discovery that some species, apparently devastated by chytridiomycosis, have just about hung on is giving some hope.

The Atelopus genus of Central and South America - for whom the Red List reads like a stuck record playing the phrase "Critically Endangered" over and over again - is a case in point.

Are these individuals immune - as some entire species appear to be - or just lucky? Can they rebuild a population?

Human condition

This World Conservation Congress saw the release of another Red List. So how did amphibians fare this time around?

"In the intervening four years, we've had 366 species added to the Red List," says Mike Hoffman, who recently helped co-ordinate Threatened Amphibians of the World, the vast, glossy, information-packed book that CI has just brought out.

"And that's primarily new species just discovered, or ones where the taxonomy has been re-arranged."

This is partly what makes the amphibian world such an exciting one at the moment. Just as species are vanishing, others are appearing to science for the very first time.

"There are now about 6,200 species - that's 10% more than we had five years ago, and that's probably between 50% and 75% of what there is, because a lot of places remain to be explored," says Claude Gascon.

"In Papua, New Guinea and Madagascar, for example, there are probably as many species waiting to be discovered as we know of now."

Making things more complex is the fact that even if chytridiomycosis can be beaten, or if amphibians can evolve their way out of its clutches, myriad other threats are set to persist and grow.

Climate change will raise temperatures and dry wetlands. Other diseases, and pollutants, will spread with increasing human migration.

Hunting continues; above all, so does the relentless spread of the human footprint, turning forests into fields, lakes into building plots and ridges into roads.

Keeping alive all the species we know about, let alone the ones we have yet to discover, is a daunting task, even given the resources that have been mobilised since the launch of the amphibian rescue plan three years ago.

But, says Claude Gascon, we have to try.

"I would argue that the story of amphibians is the story of humans. If we don't get amphibians sorted, the next batch to go extinct may be primates."

Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

14-Oct-08 2:00 PM

Study: Insecticide decimates tadpoles

Rachel Rommel — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Study: Insecticide decimates tadpoles

Published: Oct. 6, 2008 at 4:02 PM

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PITTSBURGH, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggests the common insecticide malathion can decimate tadpole populations, killing them indirectly at doses too small to kill them directly.

University of Pittsburgh researchers wanted to determine the environmental impact of the use of malathion -- the most popular insecticide in the United States.

The scientists discovered gradual amounts of malathion that were too small to directly kill developing leopard frog tadpoles instead sparked a biological chain of events that deprived them of their primary food source -- bottom dwelling algae, or periphyton, which tadpoles eat.

"As a result, nearly half the tadpoles in the experiment did not reach maturity and would have died in nature," the researchers said.

The results of the National Science Foundation-funded research builds on a nine-year effort by Associate Professor Rick Relyea to determine whether there is a link between pesticides and the global decline in amphibians. Relyea said amphibians are considered an environmental indicator species because of their sensitivity to pollutants and their deaths might foreshadow the poisoning of other, less environmentally sensitive species -- including humans.

Relyea and study co-author Nicole Diecks report their research in the journal Ecological Applications.

8-Oct-08 3:00 PM

Australian researchers discover elusive frog

Rachel Rommel — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:00:00 GMT

KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 11, 3:25 AM ET

SYDNEY, Australia - A tiny frog species thought by many experts to be extinct has been rediscovered alive and well in a remote area of Australia's tropical north, researchers said Thursday.

The 1.5 inch-long Armoured Mistfrog had not been seen since 1991, and many experts assumed it had been wiped out by a devastating fungus that struck northern Queensland state.

But two months ago, a doctoral student at James Cook University in Townsville conducting research on another frog species in Queensland stumbled across what appeared to be several Armoured Mistfrogs in a creek, said professor Ross Alford, head of a research team on threatened frogs at the university.

Conrad Hoskin, a researcher at The Australian National University in Canberra who has been studying the evolutionary biology of north Queensland frogs for the past 10 years, conducted DNA tests on tissue samples from the frogs and determined they were the elusive Armoured Mistfrog.

Alford's group got the results on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency also confirmed Hoskin's findings.

"A lot of us were starting to believe it had gone extinct, so to discover it now is amazing," Hoskin said. "It means some of the other species that are missing could potentially just be hidden away along some of the streams up there."

Craig Franklin, a zoology professor at The University of Queensland who studies frogs, said the Mistfrog's rediscovery was exciting.

"It's very significant," Franklin said. "We've lost so many frog species in Australia ... Hopefully it's a population that's making a comeback."

The light brown frogs, with dark brown spots, congregate in areas with fast-flowing water. So far, between 30 and 40 have been found.

The chytrid fungus was blamed for decimating frog populations worldwide, including seven species in Queensland's tropics between the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Armoured Mistfrogs had been classified as critically endangered rather than extinct, but most researchers believed they had died out from the disease, Alford said.

Most of the Armoured Mistfrogs that Alford's group has found are infected with the fungus, but the disease does not appear to be making them sick, he said.

Alford and his team plan to study the creatures to try and determine how they managed to coexist with the fungus, in a bid to aid future conservation and management of vulnerable frogs.

___

On the Net:

James Cook University: http://www.jcu.edu.au/

The Australian National University: http://www.anu.edu.au/index.php

22-Sep-08 10:00 AM

Frog species sprout claws on demand

Rachel Rommel — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Tue Jun 24, 6:02 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least 11 species of African frogs carry a built-in concealed weapon -- they can sprout claws on demand to fight off attackers, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

When threatened, the frogs can puncture their own skin with sharp bones in their toes that they then use to claw their attackers, David Blackburn and colleagues at Harvard University reported.

"It's surprising enough to find a frog with claws," Blackburn, a graduate student, said in a statement.

"The fact that those claws work by cutting through the skin of the frogs' feet is even more astonishing. These are the only vertebrate claws known to pierce their way to functionality."

Blackburn became aware of the frogs when one scratched him in Cameroon.

He looked at museum specimens of 63 African frog species. In 11 central African species the bones at the ends of the toes were pointed and hooked, with smaller, free-floating bones at their tips.

"These nodules are also closely connected to the surrounding skin by dense networks of collagen," Blackburn said. "It appears they hold the skin in place relative to these claw-like bones, such that when the frog flexes a certain muscle in the foot, the sharp bone separates from the nodule and bursts through the skin."

While the finding is new to science, it is not news to locals. "Cameroonian hunters will use long spears or machetes to avoid touching these frogs," Blackburn said. "Some have even reported shooting the frogs."

For their part, the frogs probably use this defense rarely, Blackburn said.

"We suspect, since the frog does suffer a fairly traumatic wound, that they probably use these claws infrequently, and only when threatened," he said.

"Most vertebrates do a much better job of keeping their skeletons inside," he added.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Sandra Maler)

24-Jun-08 9:00 AM

World's Amphibians Under Assault

Rachel Rommel — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:30:00 GMT

The first images that come to mind may be unassuming brown newts or garden-variety green frogs, but amphibians cover a much grander spectrum.

Among about 6,000 species of frogs, salamanders and caecilians (legless animals, pronounced like "Sicilians") are some of the world's most bizarre animals: Giant Chinese salamanders, two meters (6 feet) in length; the "hairy frog" of Cameroon, which not only looks like it sports hair, but also can break its own bones to grow claws (an ability discovered just last month); the Surinam toad, which carries its eggs embedded in its back; and, even more macabre, the Sagalla caecilian, which feeds its own skin to its young.

Amphibians are also among the most colorful animals: The tiny, bright-yellow poison frog (with the spectacular scientific name Phyllobates terriblis) from Colombia, which is, gram for gram, the most poisonous vertebrate in the world; the black-dotted yellow frogs of Panama, which communicate with adorable hand waves; and the charismatic red-eyed tree frogs, aptly nicknamed "swimsuit calendar frogs."

These make up just a small sample of the amazingly diverse amphibians, which have the longest history on earth. They predate all other terrestrial vertebrates.

Yet the first group of animals to colonize the land is also the first that humans are driving off it. Amphibians are disappearing faster than any other animals since the dinosaurs: 32 per cent of all species are threatened with extinction, compared with 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds. Almost half are in decline.

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The reasons are complex and vary among species. Some are hunted for the pet trade or, as with the Chinese salamander, for their meat. The destruction of habitat, as with all animals, is a major cause worldwide. Pollution also appears to be a big factor.

One of the most worrisome and headline-grabbing causes is a strange fungus: Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a.k.a. chytrid. Nobody quite knows how it kills amphibians - it may smother them, covering the skin they use to absorb oxygen and water, or it might release toxins. Biologists are unanimous in their belief that it is wiping out amphibians across the tropics, in the warm and wet conditions in which they thrive, from Australia to South America. Scientists believe that it is behind the disappearance of 74 species (out of an original 110) of harlequin frog in Central America and at least 10 species of Australian frogs.

Bob Johnson, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Toronto Zoo, saw one of the fungus' first victims just before it vanished. The golden toad of Costa Rica was once so numerous that tourists would flock to witness their mating season. They were so dense on the forest floor, "we could barely walk, there were so many of them," Johnson says of a trip he made in 1987. Just two years later, they had all disappeared, driven into extinction. "It was just astonishing."

Now, Johnson is caring for one of the last populations of Panama golden frogs, the stars of the most recent David Attenborough BBC documentary, Life in Cold Blood. The frogs were all taken out of the wild before chytrid reached them too.

Humans may be responsible for the spread of the fungus: Scientists suspect that it came from its home in South Africa when clawed frogs were exported 50 years ago for use in pregnancy tests. (A dose of a pregnant woman's urine causes a female clawed frog to lay eggs within eight to 12 hours. The test also works on male frogs, which produce sperm in response to the injection.)

African clawed frogs are mostly resilient to chytrid, and probably carried the fungus, but frogs elsewhere have little defense. It can wipe out a species in a matter of years.

Poster Children

The reason for their vulnerability boils down to two things: They spend part of their lives in water and part on land, so they are exposed to factors in both environments; and their skin - not scaly like a reptile's, but soft, thin and permeable - renders them more sensitive to things such as ultraviolet radiation, pesticides and disease.

As the most threatened group of animals on the planet, they are not just poster children for the biodiversity crisis, they are also harbingers of things to come. Because amphibians occupy a unique and crucial place in the food chain, their extinctions will ripple through the ecosystem and catalyze the rapid disappearance of other animals, large and small.

Their young - salamander larvae and frog tadpoles - are major bottom feeders. When they grow into adults and move onto land, they bring nutrients from the water with them.

"Usually water is a trap for biomass," says McGill University zoologist David Green, one of Canada's foremost authorities on amphibian declines. Things flow from land into water easily in rain, but amphibians, which move back onto land as adults, are one of the very few things in nature that move nutrients in the reverse direction, back onto land. "That's a very important job," says Prof. Green.

Moreover, as adults, they consume huge numbers of insects, then themselves are consumed in huge numbers by larger animals, such as birds and mammals. If we take these middlemen out of the food chain, the consequences could be disastrous. Insect populations could explode, while birds and mammals may disappear.

Yet, despite their importance, conservationists are struggling to raise the funds they need to save them.

"A charismatic bird or mammal will easily draw in money, but it is hard to get funding for amphibians," says Helen Meredith, who is leading the Zoological Society of London's EDGE amphibian-conservation program.

The London Zoo is caring for and breeding a number of spectacular amphibians, including the golden poison frog, and is sponsoring projects overseas for highly endangered amphibians such as the giant Chinese salamander (hunted for its meat in China, where it is considered a delicacy) and the spectacularly ugly purple frog of India, discovered just last year.

EDGE - meaning "evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered" - has found that 85 of the most distinctive and endangered 100 amphibian species are receiving little to no conservation attention. "Amphibians have been pushed into the shadows," says Meredith.

"But in terms of conservation dollars, you can accomplish so much more than investing in any of the large 'charismatic' mammals," says Kevin Zippel, director of Amphibian Ark, a branch of the World Conservation Union, which is supporting captive breeding programs.

Breeding amphibians is comparatively simple. They are small and fairly easy to take care of. "For just $50,000 to $100,000, you can save an entire amphibian species from extinction. Compare that to the amount it costs to rent one panda for a year from China: $1 million, and that doesn't even include housing, food and staff."

Amphibian Ark is trying to raise $50 million for the captive management of 500 species. "If each of the world's largest zoos just took on one species each, we'd be done," says Zippel.

"Though we aren't saying that having these species in glass boxes is an acceptable form of conservation - it's just an option for the future," he adds.

Arks to Tombs

Unless more effort is put into restoring their wild habitats, the "arks will only become tombs," says ecologist Alan Pounds, who has been documenting the decline of golden toads and harlequin frogs in Central America since the 1980s. "We can't save the world with captive breeding. We have always thought that if we have parks and reserves, then we can do what we want with the rest of the planet - and that is not true."

He says the spread of chytrid in the mountains of Costa Rica is tied to global warming. His research, published in the journal Nature, indicates that the fungus causes more frog deaths in warmer years, when the hilltops - normally cool - become more hospitable to the fungus.

It is happening not just in the mountains of Central America: Other researchers have tied the spread of the fungus in midwife toads in Spain to a warming climate.

Chytrid occurs in many places without being lethal. McGill's Prof. Green has found it in about 13 per cent of amphibians from five Canadian provinces. "Canada would have to get warmer and wetter" for the fungus to become lethal, he says. "We may start to see that."

Even if this doesn't happen, frogs all over Canada are disappearing. Leopard frogs on the Prairies are vanishing, and nobody quite knows why. Fowler's toads may be driven out of their only range, in Southern Ontario, where they are mowed over by beach grooming machines sent to remove cigarette butts. Chorus frogs in Quebec, along with their songs, are fading because of suburban development.

The precise causes can be hard to pin down, but many studies have implicated U.V. (ultraviolet) radiation, low doses of pesticides and agricultural pollution. Most ecologists believe that it is rarely one single factor that is responsible, but the combination of threats.

Ecologist Pieter Johnson at the University of Colorado published a landmark study in 2007 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) demonstrating that the combination of fertilizer runoff in ponds and the flatworm parasite Ribeiroia ondatrae may be responsible for the high prevalence of amphibian mutations that we see all over the United States and Canada (up to 70 per cent of frogs in some wetlands grow multiple arms and legs). High levels of fertilizers in ponds spawn blooms of algae, which in turn foster an explosion in snails which carry the parasites.

Many other studies have found such "synergistic effects." Researchers from Oregon State University have shown that the combination of U.V. radiation and fertilizer pollution kills seven times more frogs than either alone.

Ecologist Rick Relyea at the University of Pittsburgh, who studies pesticides, reported in 2001 in the PNAS that subjecting tadpoles to the fear of a caged predator in their tank, combined with low levels of the pesticide carbaryl, caused grey tree frog tadpoles (found in Canada) to die when neither factor alone killed them. "Many people were shocked and amazed," he says.

He has an upcoming paper in the journal Ecological Applications that will show that combinations of low doses of pesticides - non-lethal on their own - are "highly lethal."

Prof. Relyea cautions that we cannot be sure pesticides are causing frog declines in the wild - more research is needed. "The problem is that an awful lot of effort goes into assessing the benefits of these chemicals, but not the costs." We just need to be smarter about how we use pesticides, he says, such as spraying them in minimal amounts and at times of year when amphibians are less vulnerable - for example, after the tadpoles have grown into frogs.

If pesticides are responsible for deaths in the wild, the impact could be more widespread than we realize. Ecologists from the University of Toronto reported last year that pesticides in the soils in Costa Rica were actually more concentrated higher up the mountains than lower down closer to plantations, carried aloft by breezes and deposited onto the mountaintops when mists form at high elevations.

Chemical cocktails

There is an important lesson to be learned here: Being so sensitive, amphibians are sending us a warning signal. For good reason, they are known as our canaries in the coal mine. "If we lose the amphibians, then we lose our best detection system to see what's going on with the world," says EDGE's Meredith.

Not only that, we also lose "our tools for future drug production," she says. Frogs harbor incredible cocktails of chemicals in their skin that are being investigated by medical researchers. The lethal poisons of arrow frogs may be harnessed for antibiotics, and seem to yield effective painkillers hundreds of times more powerful than morphine. The wood frog, widespread in Canada, can freeze solid and survive, and is being probed for clues to preserve frozen organs during transplant. Salamanders, which can regenerate their limbs, may some day help us to grow lost digits. And it was discovered just three years ago that certain red-eyed tree frogs produce a protein that can block HIV infection.

"On the back of some toad somewhere is the compound that will do wonders for you, but we don't know which one it is yet," says Prof. Green.

Already we have lost amphibian species to extinction that may have been able to help us. In the 1970s, scientists discovered a species of frog in Australia that gestated its eggs in its stomach, using special hormones to shut down its digestive system. It could have held the clues to treat ulcers, but it has not been seen in decades.

Before the 3,000 amphibians in decline suffer the same fate, is there anything we can do? When we are trying to fight the battle on so many fronts, is there any way to win the war?

We need to deal with every single issue at once: climate change, excessive use of agricultural fertilizers and pesticides, depletion of the ozone layer and, above all, habitat degradation.

The case isn't hopeless, says Prof. Green, as long as we take action now. "We have to give amphibians some credit," he says. "They are not so vulnerable and fragile. It's just the combination of factors that they cannot cope with. They are tough as boots if you give them a chance."

Intellpuke: This article was written by Zoe Cormier, a science who lives in London, England. You can read Cormier's article in context here: www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080614.wfrogs14/BNStory/Science/home

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18-Jun-08 8:30 AM

There’s much to zoo at the Knoxville Zoo

Rachel Rommel — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:00:00 GMT

KNOXVILLE – There’s much to zoo at the Knoxville Zoo

In honor of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s 2008 Year of the Frog, Knoxville Zoo has introduced “Toadally Frogs” as one of its newest exhibits.

Visitors will have the opportunity to visit a chorus of croakers in this “ribbeting” exhibit. Also new at the zoo is Bloomin’ Butterfly Gardens, where visitors can immerse themselves in a flurry of butterflies floating around the exhibit. Other natural exhibits include The Boyd Family Red Panda Village, Grasslands Africa!, The Stokely African Elephant Preserve, Meerkat Lookout, Penguin Rock, Chimp Ridge, The Pridelands, River Otters, Cheetah Savannah, Gorilla Valley and Black Bear Falls.

18-Jun-08 8:00 AM

Students rally to save frogs

Rachel Rommel — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Royal Oak

Students rally to save frogs

They donate money to zoo's conservation center

Shawn D. Lewis / The Detroit News

ROYAL OAK -- Emily Joyce is fond of frogs and hopes to save them from extinction.

Her seventh-grade class at Larson Middle School in Troy recently presented a $500 check to the Detroit Zoo's National Amphibian Conservation Center.

"I really want to help save the frogs because they make the world a better place," said Emily, 13, of Troy.

The Detroit Zoo is part of a worldwide effort to breed certain amphibians in captivity to ensure their future survival. To raise awareness and stave off amphibians' extinction, conservation groups have declared 2008 the Year of the Frog.

Conservationists across the globe are concerned that frogs could face extinction in the next 100 years, due to habitat loss, climate change, pollution and pesticides, and a deadly fungus spread by frogs used for science.

Scientists estimate that one-third to one-half of the world's 6,000 frog, salamander, toad and newt species are threatened, and 120 species have already disappeared. Scientists say frogs are important bellwether species -- meaning the poor health of their populations can signal wider environmental problems. But frogs have also shown promise in medical research: Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville tested 15 species, including the northern leopard frog and the bullfrog -- both Michigan natives -- for a substance in their skin that can block viruses.

"Frogs have some secrets in their skin, and they're like a little first-aid kit," said Louise Rollins-Smith, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. Rollins-Smith worked with a team of investigators studying these chemicals and reported in the Journal of Virology that compounds secreted by frog skin are potent blockers of HIV infection. The findings could lead to topical treatments for preventing its transmission.

Judy Armstrong-Hall, a Larson Middle School science teacher who co-sponsored the field trip to the zoo, educates students about the importance of conservation, and the small steps they can take to help.

Her message resonates with her student Mukund Mohan, 12.

"It's important to save the frogs because they eat insects that can carry malaria and other diseases that can destroy humans," he said.

18-Jun-08 8:00 AM

Let's hear three croaks for frogs

Rachel Rommel — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:00:00 GMT

The amphibians get some love from environmental groups trying to protect them.

By BRENNA MALONEY, Washington Post

Last update: June 13, 2008 - 3:39 PM

What, you didn't know they were in trouble? One-third to one-half of all amphibian species are threatened with extinction, the conservation group Amphibian Ark says. Loss of habitat is the major threat, affecting the most species, but a disease called chytrid fungus is also proving deadly.

Frogs and toads make up one of three main groups of amphibians. There are about 3,500 known species of frogs and 300 kinds of toads. They can be found on every continent except Antarctica.

All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads.

Like all amphibians, frogs and toads begin their lives in the water, breathing with gills; as adults on land, they breathe with lungs.

You are most likely to see a toad in your yard or garden; frogs prefer ponds and other still waters. Both animals must return to water to lay their eggs.

"Frogs tend to lay eggs in clumps: a single egg surrounded by other eggs, like a ball of eggs," said Matt Evans, a biologist and herpetologist (an expert in reptiles and amphibians) at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. "A lot of toads lay their eggs in a single line, so it's like a string of eggs."

A lot can be learned about frogs and toads by observing them. For example, if a toad feels threatened, it will lean forward on its front legs and pump its lungs full of air to appear larger. A frog will tend to flee, using its powerful legs to hop to safety.

Evans reveals a little-known fact about frogs and toads: "They actually use the inside of their eyes to push food down into their throats."

You can see this more clearly in frogs, Evans says: "Frogs have big eyes. You always see a frog blink when it's swallowing. The eye socket goes down into their mouth, so when they swallow, their eyes push down and help push food that's in their mouth back into their throat."

Frogs and toads generally do not use their front legs to grab food or assist them in eating. They have a long, sticky tongue that's hinged at the front of the mouth so it can rapidly flip out and capture insects. And the frog's teeth aren't used for chewing.

"They're bringing a food item in that's alive when it comes to their mouth; they have to swallow it immediately," Evans says.

If you encounter a frog or toad this summer, Evans has some advice.

"It is an age-old myth that toads cause warts. That is not true," he says.

But do beware of frogs and toads, especially if they are secreting toxins.

"If you get it on your hands and rub your eyes, it could cause some stinging and some burning," he says. "I'd say, after you handle them, just wash your hands."

Continue to next page

18-Jun-08 8:00 AM

Many kinds of frogs – including toads – face extinction

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Many kinds of frogs – including toads – face extinction

BRENNA MALONEY; The Washington Post

Published: June 10th, 2008 01:00 AM

It’s tough to be a frog these days – or a toad, for that matter: 2008 has been named the Year of the Frog by a number of environmental groups to raise awareness of the worldwide plight of amphibians.

What, you didn’t know they were in trouble? Between one-third and one-half of all amphibian species are threatened with extinction, the conservation group Amphibian Ark says. Loss of habitat is the major threat, affecting the most species, but a disease called chytrid fungus is also proving deadly.

Frogs and toads make up one of three main groups of amphibians. There are about 3,500 known species of frogs and 300 kinds of toads. They can be found on every continent except Antarctica.

All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. Determining which is which can be difficult.Matt Evans, a biologist and herpetologist at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., gave KidsPost a lesson in the basics. Here are some differences between an American toad and a bullfrog.

AMERICAN TOAD

Brown to brick-red to olive. Brownish spots, brown to orange-red warts. Belly usually spotted.

Parotid gland: Oozes poison if the toad is stressed.

Eyes: Do not bulge from the body.

Skin: Dry and warty.

Body: A bit chubby.

Legs: Short; used for walking and hopping but not jumping.

BULLFROG

The largest frog in North America. Green to yellow back with cream or white belly.

Parotid gland: None. “Frogs have skin glands that can secret toxins, but they are (generally) not as toxic as toads,” Evans says.

Eyes: Bulge from the top of the head, allowing them to see in nearly all directions.

Skin: Smooth, moist.

Body: Long, leaner than a toad’s.

Legs: Long and powerful for jumping.

Like all amphibians, frogs and toads begin their lives in the water, breathing with gills; as adults on land, they breathe with lungs.

You are most likely to see a toad in your yard or garden; frogs prefer ponds and other still waters. Both animals must return to water to lay their eggs.

Evans reveals a little-known fact about frogs and toads: “They actually use the inside of their eyes to push food down into their throats.”

Frogs and toads have a long, sticky tongue that’s hinged at the front of the mouth so it can rapidly flip out and capture insects.

If you encounter a frog or toad this summer, Evans has some advice. “It is an age-old myth that toads cause warts. That is not true,” he says. But do beware of frogs and toads, especially if they are secreting toxins. “If you get it on your hands and rub your eyes, it could cause some stinging and some burning. I’d say, after you handle them, just wash your hands.”

12-Jun-08 9:00 AM

Museum exhibition addresses amphibian death, habitat loss

Rachel Rommel — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:00:00 GMT

A new Cleveland Museum of Natural History exhibition takes a closer look at amphibians, the threat of extinction they face and the role of humans in both their decline and survival. The exhibition, "Toad-ily Frogs," will be on display in the museum's Corning Gallery through Sept. 28.

Scientists have reported on the decline of amphibians for some time. But the situation is reaching crisis proportions - presently one-half to one-third of all amphibian species worldwide could become extinct within a human lifetime if present conditions continue.

To encourage positive change, the global conservation community has dubbed 2008 the "Year of the Frog." Locally, the museum, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and more than two dozen other area conservation- and science-oriented organizations have partnered on "Leap into Action," a regional initiative led by Cleveland Metroparks Zoo to highlight amphibians and their habitats through special events, activities, displays and programs.

As part of this effort, the Museum has produced the new exhibition "Toad-ily Frogs." Several Museum staff members collaborated on content and presentation, including educators Beth Gatchell, Kate Iverson and Stacey Heffernan, Curator of Vertebrate Zoology Dr. Tim Matson, Center for Conservation & Biodiversity Associate Director Renee Boronka and Biodiversity Alliance Conservation Program Coordinator Dr. Cathi Lehn.

"This exhibition will help visitors understand the global problems that face amphibians and show them how to take action to preserve amphibian habitat," Gatchell explains.

The exhibition is a stop on the Leap into Action passport, which is available for $1 plus tax in the museum store. That dollar will be matched by the Cleveland Zoological Society and go toward creating and maintaining vernal ponds for amphibians in Cleveland Metroparks. Visitors can complete a scavenger hunt that uses the exhibition and other displays throughout the museum and earn a sticker for their passport.

Other events and locations at which visitors can earn stickers, plus detailed information about amphibian conservation, are listed at www.forfrogs.org.

Museum hours, admission

"Toad-ily Frogs" is included in the Museum's admission fee, which is $9 adults; $7 ages 7 to 18, college students with IDs and seniors 60 years of age or older; and $6 children 3 to 6. Wednesday evening admission is $5 after 5 p.m. Shafran Planetarium shows are $4 per person with admission.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is at 1 Wade Oval Drive in University Circle, just 15 minutes east of downtown Cleveland. Museum hours are: Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

For more information, call 216-231-4600 or 800-317-9155, or visit the museum's Web site at www.cmnh.org.

28-May-08 3:00 PM

Froggie goes a-courtin'

Rachel Rommel — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:00:00 GMT

The Budgett's frog had two fangs and screamed, so, of course, producers of the 30-second television spot touting the Frog Bog at the Newport Aquarium named it Psychofrog.

"He tries to bite you," said Greg Newberry, president of O'Bryonville-based Animal Instinct Advertising, which has launched a multimedia advertising campaign for the Newport Aquarium.

• Hear the frogs

The spot, an unusual advertisement of morphing frog images, will air on broadcast television through the summer travel season locally and in Louisville, Lexington and Dayton.

It celebrates the aquarium's Year of the Frog and promotes the new frog exhibit.

"That Budgett frog is a crazy little frog," Newberry said. "He can eat a mouse. Sometimes nothing was working, so we'd say, 'Let's get Psychofrog out here and see what he can do.' "

The distinctive advertisement is a colorful collage of dozens of exotic frogs, one morphing into another, all backed by a catchy soundtrack created from frog croaks.

The first challenge for this ad, called a Frog Metamorphosis Music Video, was to create the soundtrack from thousands of frog creaks, croaks and chirps.

Matt Hueneman at Sound Images, a downtown music production company, engineered the soundtrack, and as frog song maestro, Hueneman had to listen to a cacophony of frog sounds compiled by naturalist Lang Elliot, owner of an Ithaca, N.Y.-based studio.

Hueneman started with a drum track similar to what might be in a Bo Diddley song.

Every time a drumstick hit a percussion instrument, Hueneman found a digital substitution in croak or creak.

"Some frogs sounded like a shaker or a Cuban cabassa. A couple of frogs had a low-end bass note. That was a great substitute for a bass drum," Hueneman said. "We let the frogs do most of the playing."

Bob Nyswonger, a former bass player for the Psychodots, the Raisins and the Bears, and Randy Villars, saxophonist in the BlueBirds Big Band, rounded out the tune.

Mark Cretcher, editor at CommandX Digital Media, an O'Bryonville ad production agency, aligned the song with the images - an exercise in creative but complicated tedium.

Each frog used in the ad had to be put in the same place on a Plexiglas panel so it could easily blend into the next. Then, to prevent the spread of disease, the panel had to be washed before another frog could be placed on it.

Some frogs were asked to jump, but didn't oblige. Some were ordered to move, but instead just sat there.

"Sometimes you just had to wait them out," said Newberry.

28-May-08 3:00 PM

Biologists turn to captivity to try to save Panama's golden frog from deadly fungus

Rachel Rommel — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

EL VALLE DE ANTON, Panama: The golden frog is a symbol of Panama — revered by indigenous cultures in the past and the lucky emblem on lottery tickets today.

Now threatened by a lethal fungus that has killed other species, the national treasure may be facing life in captivity. A pair of biologists have decided that plucking the frogs from the cloud forests and putting them in quarantine is the only way to save them.

Their goal is to eventually return the frogs to the wild, but these scientists cannot predict if or when the fungus will disappear.

"It's sad to seem them in tanks," said Heidi Ross, 31, of Park Falls, Wisconsin. "They're so perfect. They're like our children."

The chytrid fungus, which thrives in highland streams, attacks the frogs' skin through which they breathe, eventually suffocating them. Scientists reported its appearance in Panama's El Cope forest in 2004 and two years later in the Valley of Anton. It made its way south from Costa Rica, where it wiped out several frog species.

Ross and her husband, Panamanian biologist Edgardo Griffith, opened the Amphibian Conservation Center two years ago in the Nispero Zoo in the Valley of Anton, a region popular with tourists and foreigners buying vacation homes. Financed in part by the Houston Zoo, the US$300,000 (€193,050) center houses 500 amphibians representing up to 50 species.

The stars are the golden frogs — actually orange or yellow with black spots — whose scientific name is atelopus zeteki.

Of the 62 frog species that lived in the Valley of Anton years ago, only about 10 are left, Griffith said. Golden frogs were once so abundant they were commonly found in residential gardens. Now it can take days to find one in the wild, and Griffith fears they will completely disappear within a few years.

He and another Panamanian biologist, Roberto Ibanez, started trying to save the golden frogs in 2000, carrying out a field study and sending groups of the frogs for breeding experiments in zoos in Baltimore, Detroit and Cleveland.

The Houston Zoo eventually asked Griffith to direct its amphibian conservation and breeding efforts in Panama. Ross, meanwhile, arrived in Panama as a Peace Corps volunteer working on sustainable agriculture and eventually joined the golden frog initiative.

Pre-Columbian Indians created golden and mud figurines of the frogs known as "guacas." Legend had it that golden frogs turned into guacas when they died and brought luck and fertility. Today, replicas abound in Panama's artisan shops. A national symbol, the frogs also can be seen enjoying a beer or chatting on the phone in advertisements.

In the amphibian center, the real things are housed in tanks with wild plants and temperatures comparable to their habitat. There were also a group of tadpoles born this month in the center's second breeding project.

The frogs are quarantined while they are cured of the fungus and parasites, but eventually will be on public display.

Within a few years, that may be the only way to see a golden frog. Scientists have ruled out using pesticides to destroy the chytrid fungus for fear of killing other types that are beneficial to the environment.

"The only way for the golden frog to survive on the planet may be in captivity," Griffith said. "They'd lose part of their charm, part of their value as a species."

_____

En la Internet:

http://www.houstonzoo.org

http://www.zoonewengland.com

http://www.ranadorada.org

5-May-08 2:00 PM

Slipping Away

Mon, 05 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Frogs, salamanders and other amphibians are sliding into oblivion

by Sara Shipley Hiles

In a cloud forest in Panama, hundreds of frogs turn up dead, the life sucked out of them by a strange fungus.

In the wetlands of northwest Iowa, where hunters once collected 20 million frogs a year for their meaty legs, there is only one leopard frog left for every thousand frogs the pioneers saw.

In southern Missouri's mountain streams, scientists struggle to protect dwindling populations of the Ozark hellbender, a wrinkled, primitive salamander that can grow to two feet long.

All around the planet, amphibians such as these are in trouble. It's not just the colorful, exotic rainforest species that are disappearing, but also the common frogs, toads, newts and salamanders that people used to see in backyards across America. A third of all amphibian species are considered threatened, making them the most vulnerable group of animals in the world. By comparison, 12 percent of birds and 23 percent of mammals are threatened.

Amphibians—named for the Greek word for "double life"—are moist-skinned vertebrates that have distinct larval and adult stages. Typically spending part of their lives on land and part in water, these change artists have thrived on Earth for 360 million years. But without swift action, many scientists and conservationists believe that much of their diversity will soon vanish. An estimated 120 of approximately 6,000 known amphibian species have disappeared in the past 25 years, and another 2,000 to 3,000 species may go extinct in our lifetimes.

"It sounds like hyperbole, but really, this is the greatest conservation challenge humanity has ever faced," says Kevin Zippel, program officer for Amphibian Ark, a $50-million effort to collect critically endangered species from the wild for protection and breeding in zoos and aquariums. "The world hasn't seen an extinction crisis like this since the dinosaurs died out."

Defending Amphibians

Defenders’ international program has a new focus on the amphibian crisis, building on our 2007 report on the live animal trade, Broken Screens - The Regulation of Live Animal Imports in the United States. That report showed more than a dozen non-native amphibian species currently being imported pose risks of becoming invasive species and/or carrying diseases.

In addition to working on reforming the live animal trade, we are assessing the parts of the amphibian import business that are causing unsustainable collecting overseas. And international associate Heidi Ruffler is educating policymakers on the need to more tightly screen amphibian imports for deadly diseases, especially that caused by chytrid fungus.

Defenders is also launching a new effort to protect amphibians in Latin America, where these creatures are both diverse and threatened on a number of fronts. Defenders’ new international counsel, Alejandra Goyenechea, is assessing protections for amphibians under international laws, such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and under laws in relevant countries as well.

See www.defenders.org/amphibians for more information.

The Amphibian Ark is part of a larger program, the Amphibian Conservation Action Plan, created by staff from conservation groups, universities, zoos, government agencies and others around the world. This is a broad plan to counter threats to amphibians, which range from habitat loss, disease and overharvesting to global warming, pollution and UV radiation. The estimated cost of this effort is $400 million over a five-year period.

To help raise awareness and funding for amphibians, organizers have dubbed 2008 the "Year of the Frog." The campaign kicked off on New Year's Eve with a series of "leap year" events focused on the plight of amphibians. Other activities planned for the year include a worldwide petition drive and special events at zoos, aquariums and museums. The tone of these celebrations is light, but the crisis behind it often has herpetologists speaking in somber tones.

"These are tragic circumstances we find ourselves in," says George Rabb, retired president of the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago and a member of Defenders of Wildlife's board. "We either do something to give amphibians some security, or it's likely that many of these creatures will absolutely vanish from this Earth."

The most urgent problem, scientists say, is a fungus that can kill up to 80 percent of native amphibians within months of its arrival in an area. Formally known as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd for short, the deadly agent is commonly referred to as a chytrid fungus.

Biologist Karen Lips helped track the fungus' wavelike spread through Central America. In 1992, she encountered a handful of dead frogs in Costa Rica, but she didn't think much of it. Four years later, when she found 50 dead frogs at a site in Panama, she knew something was wrong. The frogs looked fine, but they didn't move, as if they had been frozen in place. "It's like they went to sleep sitting on their little rock or leaf, and they just died right there," says Lips, who works at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

The frogs died of a chytrid infection, but no one knew that at the time. The fungal disease wasn't identified until 1997, when scientists from around the world gathered to look at the organism under an electron microscope and agreed that it was the same pathogen decimating frogs from Australia to the United Kingdom. Since then, the fungus has been discovered in most of the world, with a few exceptions, such as Madagascar, New Guinea and parts of Asia, Rabb says.

The origin of the fungus is still a mystery. The prevailing hypothesis holds that it originated in Africa and spread around the globe through the export of the African clawed frog, a common lab animal once used in human pregnancy testing. More recently, trade in the American bullfrog and other species used for food and pets may have spread the fungus, but no one is quite sure how it gets around. It is unstoppable and untreatable in the wild. "We can't really track it in nature yet," Lips says. "We just stake it out and wait for it to get there."

Some amphibians appear to be immune to the disease, but others are completely wiped out. Joe Mendelson, curator of herpetology at Zoo Atlanta, compares the spread of chytrid to the smallpox epidemic that swept through Native American populations after European settlers arrived, leaving few survivors. "That's what we have with amphibians right now—groups that have survived," he says. "In southern Mexico, at one of my study sites, there are still amphibians there, but you're looking at what was left after everything else was killed."

After witnessing six or seven population crashes and finding hundreds of dead frogs in Central America, Lips is shifting some of her work to the United States. She plans to embark on a survey of frogs across Illinois to see how widespread the pathogen is there. "Honestly, we're limited in what we can do down there (in Central America), because we're running out of frogs," she says.

Such sobering realizations have led to amphibian rescue missions like one Mendelson helped lead at a site known as El Valle in Panama in 2005. With the blessing of the Panamanian government, a team of Americans and Panamanians conducted what Mendelson calls a "pre-emptive conservation strike," capturing about 600 frogs from 35 species and taking them back to facilities in Atlanta. At the same time, the Houston Zoo was building an amphibian conservation center in Panama. Within a year of the extraction, the fungus showed up at El Valle and wreaked its havoc, and "now the place is almost completely frogless," Mendelson says.

The Amphibian Ark program promotes more of these rescue operations for about 500 species deemed to be in imminent danger. Zippel says the Ark will target many species in tropical forests, where the fungus is hitting particularly hard, but it will also include American species such as the California mountain yellow-legged frog and the Mississippi gopher frog. Each species will be housed in two biologically secure facilities to guard against unexpected loss. For remote areas, commercial shipping containers can be converted into self-contained labs run on solar power. "Literally, wherever amphibians are in need, we can put one" of the labs, Zippel says.

The idea is to keep a sliver of the population alive so that the animals can be released to the wild when—or if—it's safe. "We could have the fungus cured tomorrow, or never," Zippel says. "It's really a stopgap measure, to buy us some time."

Even if chytrid fungus could be tamed, amphibians face a host of other problems. Habitat loss is still chief among them, according to a 2004 global survey. Mike Lannoo, editor of a comprehensive book about amphibian declines in the United States, blames habitat loss for the one amphibian extinction documented in the United States to date. "The Vegas Valley leopard frog was last seen in 1942. Basically, Bugsy Siegel built Las Vegas over its habitat," Lannoo says.

Of the 291 species remaining in the United States, Lannoo estimates that two-thirds are in decline. About 10 percent are at severe risk. Only a few are increasing in numbers, often because of their introduction into non-native habitats, he said. Even those species that are still common are less so than they once were, he says.

For example, leopard frogs swarmed the shores of Lake Okoboji in northwestern Iowa so heavily a century ago that hunters were able to collect 20 million of the spotted greenish-brown frogs a year. "If you go to that same spot now, which I have, what you find is a three orders of magnitude decrease. You might say there are still plenty of frogs, and that's true, but there are 1,000 times fewer frogs," Lannoo says. Swamp draining in the early 20th century killed the commercial frog industry, and later, amphibians suffered from the application of pesticides and the introduction of carnivorous sport fish such as muskies, he says.

The tiger salamander, the most widespread salamander species in the United States, is another example of a once-common species that has declined. Growing up to a foot long, the tiger salamander is secretive, spending most of its time burrowed underground. While still thriving in some areas, tiger salamanders have been eliminated in much of their former range, and a number of studies have documented sharp drops in local populations.

"The biggest factor in amphibian decline is habitat loss and habitat alteration," Lannoo says. "But as a society, the things we're doing almost universally negatively impact amphibians: global warming, ozone depletion, acid rain, applying pesticides, planting non-native species, moving fish around, spreading disease."

Adding these factors together may create the perfect storm that's killing amphibians. Threats to the Ozark hellbender salamander, for example, include habitat loss, overcollection and pollution from man-made chemicals, such as endocrine disruptors. Recently, researchers found some hellbenders infected with chytrid fungus as well.

Tyrone Hayes, the University of California-Berkeley researcher who has studied the impacts of the weed-killing chemical atrazine on frogs, says that environmental chemicals play a significant role in amphibian decline. Hayes led a recently published study that found immune system damage in frogs exposed to a cocktail of nine pesticides commonly used on corn fields. "I would never say atrazine and other pesticides are causing the global amphibian decline, but I do think they're involved by making them more susceptible to diseases that would otherwise not impact them," he says. (Syngenta, a major manufacturer of atrazine, says its studies have not found the herbicide to be harmful to amphibians. "We saw no effect on sexual development, and no effect on the general health of the animal either," says Tim Pastoor, principal science advisor for Syngenta. Although atrazine is banned in some European countries, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency re-approved its use in 2006.)

If amphibians disappear, what then? Lips' work has shown a cascade of effects in the ecosystem. Amphibians sit in the middle of the food web, so when frogs go, it affects both the things they eat and the things that eat them. Tadpoles eat algae and sediment in streams, so if there are no tadpoles, algae grow unchecked and sediment increases, leading to changes in water quality and aquatic insects. Adult frogs eat insects, so if there are no hungry frogs, some insect populations boom. And some snakes depend on frogs for food, so without their prey, those snakes may starve to death.

Amphibians also carry secrets of biomedicine that could be lost forever. Researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville have discovered anti-microbial substances in the skin of certain frogs that stopped HIV infection. The Australian red-eyed tree frog had the highest levels of such virus-blocking substances. "Theoretically, there could be some kind of cream developed that could protect against HIV transmission," says Louise Rollins-Smith, a microbiologist who participated in the study.

The other selfish reason for humans to take notice is that frogs and salamanders are telling us something, says Robin Moore, an amphibian specialist at Conservation International who is helping to coordinate the worldwide amphibian conservation plan. "Amphibians are sensitive to change, and may simply be the first to go. They are sounding an alarm, an early warning that the ecosystems in which they live are not healthy," he says. "We do not know what will be next to go—birds, mammals—or us?"

Learn more about the conservation of amphibians.

Sara Shipley Hiles is a freelance writer specializing in environmental topics. She teaches journalism at Western Kentucky University.

5-May-08 2:00 PM

2008: Leap Year and Year of the Frog. Coincidence or conspiracy?

Mon, 05 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

By FRAN HENRY , Newhouse News Service
Sunday, April 6, 2008

Neither - just clever timing by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which is staging the Year of the Frog.

Association members have committed this year to stirring up interest in the plight of the world's amphibians - frogs, salamanders, newts, toads and caecilians, which look like worms or eels and live in tropical areas.

Nearly one-third of the world's 6,000 species are in danger of extinction, according to the World Conservation Union. Scientists blame a confluence of factors, including an infectious fungal disease, global warming and loss of habitat.

Amphibians infected with a deadly form of chytrid fungus display neurological problems and sloughing skin. The carrier might be the African clawed frog, sold as pets and used in medical research and apparently unaffected by the disease. There is no known treatment.

"Every amphibian on the planet is in danger of going the way of the dinosaurs," said Geoff Hall, general curator at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, which is taking part in the initiative.

The fungus is a significant cause of the losses and has been in North America since the '50s, but habitat loss is by far the biggest problem, Hall said.

"We have to value natural land," he said. "The value of a grove of trees needs to be considered in relation to the value of a shopping center."

The Cleveland zoo is coordinating Leap into Action, a regional initiative offering opportunities for the public to become educated and involved in amphibian conservation. In April, for example, four Ohio county park systems will offer hikes relating to specific amphibians.

The zoo joined the effort about 11 years ago, when it began efforts to breed the Puerto Rican crested toad, a species on the brink of extinction. And for Project Golden Frog, which began in 2005, the zoo shelters and breeds Panamanian golden frogs, thought to be extinct in the wild.

Next, it will research whether the skin of a different species of golden frog contains a chemical that fights the killer fungus. The Baltimore and Detroit zoos are conducting similar studies.

Amphibians are the "canary in the coal mine," he said. "This could wake up people to how we've been behaving on this planet. The green movement begins with the decisions each of us make every day. We have to consider the consequences of our action."

5-May-08 2:00 PM

Solomon Island leaf froglet

Rachel Rommel — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

This Lincoln Park Zoo handout shows a tiny Solomon Island leaf froglet as it delicately perches on the fingertip of its animal keeper at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois on May 1, 2008. Hatched on February 16, this species is particularly unique as it hatches as a perfectly formed tiny frog rather than a tadpole. It is one of the few species of frogs in the world that do this. Native to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands this species is not yet endangered, however they do face many of the same environmental challenges, such as pollution and loss of habitat that is jeopardizing nearly half of the world's amphibian species. This year Lincoln Park Zoo is celebrating "Year of the Frog" along with other Association of Zoos and Aquarium facilities around the country to raise public awareness about the amphibian decline crisis.

5-May-08 2:00 PM

Jeff Corwin and Panamanian Biologists Find Frog Feared to Be on Edge of Extinction During Filming of Animal Planet Film 'THE VANISHING FROG'

Mon, 05 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Corwin and Biologists from the Houston Zoo Find Harlequin Frogs, Thought to be the Last of Their Kind, In Dense Rainforest of Panama -

SILVER SPRING, Md., April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- While trekking through a remote rainforest in Omar Torrijos National Park in central Panama for the upcoming Animal Planet documentary THE VANISHING FROG, wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin, along with biologists Bill Konstant and Edgardo Griffith of the Houston Zoo, uncovered a small population of a critically endangered frog species that scientists feared had disappeared from the wild. The frogs belong to the genus Atelopus, commonly known as Harlequin frogs. The species in question is Atelopus varius, which is one of two species of golden frogs native to Panama, both of which are on the path to extinction in the wild. The specimens in question were found after an exhaustive search of a remote mountain river where the species was formerly found in great numbers just a few years ago. The specimens discovered on April 6, 2008, included a sub-adult which indicates the species still survives in an area where entire populations of amphibians have been wiped out by a deadly fungus.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080430/NEW114 )

THE VANISHING FROG is a joint project of Animal Planet and Clorox, which have joined forces to focus worldwide attention on the deadly fungus which is destroying frogs and other amphibian populations around the world. The film is slated to premiere this fall and sends Corwin on a worldwide mission to uncover clues to the frogs' deadly plight. The crew was filming work of Amphibian Ark, a global alliance dedicated to saving amphibians that cannot be saved in the wild, at the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center in Panama. The Houston Zoo, along with dozens of other educational institutions, universities, zoos and aquariums in partnership with the AZA, are conducting a last-ditch rescue mission and captive breeding program for Panamanian frogs, toads and salamanders at the Center.

"Some in the scientific community consider this species to be extinct in the wild," a thrilled Corwin beams. "With this rare discovery, it gives us hope that all is not lost in the battle to save this amphibian and others. But it does urgently underscore the importance of this work and emphasizes how fast and nimble we need to be in drawing attention to this global amphibian crisis."

"This discovery of additional animals from this population nearing extinction is very significant," added Dr. Kevin Zippel, program director with Amphibian Ark, a global alliance dedicated to saving amphibians that cannot be saved in the wild. "The golden frogs collected by Jeff and the team will be founders for a captive breeding population. Snatched from the jaws of extinction, these animals and their descendants might someday be used to re-establish golden frogs in Panama, assuming threats in the wild can be mitigated."

The leading cause of amphibian extinction is habitat destruction, but a deadly fungus known as chytrid has led to a dramatic increase in the rate of extinction especially in Panama, Costa Rica and other Central American countries. Additional factors include climate change, environmental degradation, and unsustainable exploitation of wildlife.

Last fall, Clorox, whose namesake bleach* is used to kill the fungus in captive breeding facilities and disinfect field equipment in the battle to save frogs, became the first corporate sponsor of the "Year of the Frog" and signed on to THE VANISHING FROG project while it was still in development. In addition, Clorox is providing funding to complete the construction of a visitors and education center at the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center.

Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 94 million homes in the US; online assets http://www.animalplanet.com/, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; PetsIncredible, a major producer and distributor of pet-training videos and includes web service PetVideo.com; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.

*Clorox Regular Bleach is an EPA-registered fungicide

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5-May-08 2:00 PM

Jeff Corwin and Panamanian Biologists Find Frog Feared to Be on Edge of Extinction During Filming of Animal Planet Film 'THE VANISHING FROG'

Rachel Rommel — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:00:00 GMT

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Animal Planet

1-May-08 12:00 PM

Photographer left with frog in throat

Rachel Rommel — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Ross Eastgate

18Apr08

HANDSOME, a 20-year-old tree frog gave photographer Aldwyn Altuney more than she bargained for at a media launch.

Handsome is Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary's Year of the Frog ambassador and was appearing at the launch of Inkspot Printers' super new printing press.

As soon as Aldwyn had taken her photo, Handsome leapt at her, the first time he had ever done such a thing, according to his keeper Natalie Hill.

"I obviously made a good impression on him and was rather honoured he decided to jump on me," said Aldwyn.

Inkspot Printers have provided the Sanctuary with free frog education packs for Gold Coast schools and Handsome's visit was his way of saying thanks.

Frogs species are in unprecedented decline and the kits deliver key messages about saving them and their habitat.

22-Apr-08 8:00 AM

Nature calls and frogs, scientists, answer

Rachel Rommel — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:45:00 GMT

By MARK DAVIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/10/08

MONTICELLO — The moon was just a sliver of silver in the immense indigo when the chorus started. It came from the shadows, where hardwoods are in bud.

Eep! Eep! Eep-eep-eep!...

Mark Davis / AJC staff

(ENLARGE)

Biologist Kristina Sorensen keeps track of the temperature outside Wednesday 4/9/08. Since frogs are cold-blooded, changes in temperature can affect their activity. The state is participating in a national survey based on frog calls to chart the growth and movement of amphibian populations.

Audio: Frog sounds from Putnam to Jasper

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Kristina Sorensen tilted her head. "Peepers," she said.

Then, just on the edge of a pond:

Snerf!

"Oh! A pickerel."

Click-click... click-click.

Sorensen smiled. "Cricket frog."

The sounds came from every corner of the night — melodious peeps and guttural coughs, metallic clicks and a banjo-like strumming. Sorensen didn't move.

Weh-k-k-k...

"Gray tree frog."

This is science in its nascent stages. Sorensen, a biologist with the state Department of Natural Resources, is helping catalog the sounds of Georgia's 31 frog species. The inventory of calls — what peeped, croaked or bellowed, where and when — will become part of the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program. This is the first year Georgia has participated in the count, overseen by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Wednesday night, Sorensen jumped in her state-owned Chevy pickup and made a 30-mile circuit through parts of Jasper and Putnam counties, about 65 miles east of Atlanta. The truck bumped down gravel and clay roads where a vehicle is so unusual that dogs barked when hers passed.

She stopped at 10 sites and spent five minutes at each, listening. This is a good time of the year to listen, too: It's mating season. The guys are calling to the girls from ditch and limb, from bog and log.

And the girls? Sorensen, 29, smiled again. "They're listening," she said.

The project began in January, when John Jensen, a DNR senior wildlife biologist, established 78 different routes charting frog sounds. The routes range from coastal plains to mountains.

"It seemed like a pretty good way to look at frog populations," he said.

Volunteers travel some of the routes, which average about 15 miles and have established stops. Other DNR workers, like Sorensen, agreed to venture into the night, clipboard in hand.

Sorensen, like others in the frog-listening program, had to pass a quiz before she could do an inventory. It's not always easy, say, to discern a Fowler's toad (Whehhhh) from an Eastern narrowmouth toad (Wehnnnn).

The listeners will make circuits three times this year, noting any changes in frog calls at each stop. In time, said Jensen, the state will know whether frog populations are flourishing or diminishing.

Worldwide, frogs are in trouble. Beset by habitat loss and a fatal fungus, some species have nearly vanished. Scientists are so concerned about amphibians that they declared 2008 the Year of the Frog.

Federal scientists hope the monitoring program will illuminate frogs' status in the United States, said Linda Weir, who oversees the national effort. More than 20 states, from the Southeast to the Midwest, are participating, she said.

"We want to better understand what is happening with frogs and toads," she said.

It will take time to learn how Georgia frogs are faring, Jensen said.

"We're just establishing a baseline [of data] now," said Jensen, a metro Atlanta native whose Jasper County home has a concrete frog squatting by its steps. "I'm probably going to be retired before they see some [population] trends in the state."

Wednesday's listening began about a half-hour after dusk in the Oconee National Forest. Sorensen pulled off a two-lane highway where a dock juts into Murder Creek. The moon, reflected in its black waters, looked like lightning. Fireflies flitted in branches furred with new growth.

For a moment, nothing. Then —

Eep! A far-off hello from a male peeper. Sorensen nodded. Eep! Another peeper, somewhere in the trees, responded.

Five minutes later, Sorensen made the first notations in her log. The truck spun a few rocks as it bounced back onto the two-lane, turned left onto a gravel road, and plunged into the depth of night.

The second stop, along a road barely wide enough to allow two pickups to pass, was hardly more than a ditch. Sorensen threw the truck in park and stepped into the dark. Stars twinkled like scattered diamonds.

Whehhhhhh...

"Fowler's toads," Sorensen declared. "A full chorus."

Moments later, the truck was moving again, twin beams of light poking holes in complete darkness. "I think," said Sorensen, raised on the east coast of Florida, "that we are officially in the sticks."

The sticks abounded with life. A coyote screamed in the distance at one stop, a dark stretch of roadway where a distant house was the only sign of human activity. Something crashed through the brush at a site were trees hung over the road. At another stop: Aaaaa-Ohhhh... Bullfrog? Sorensen shook her head. "Bull," she said.

"I like this," Sorensen said, her face illuminated in the pale green lights of the Chevy's dash. "I have a passion for preserving our natural resources."

The listening session wound up at Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Jasper County, where Sorensen put down her clipboard to eavesdrop on couple of barred owls. Their hoots echoed in the woods. They sounded like two old pals saying hello.

The evening's total? Sorensen detected peepers, gray tree frogs, green frogs, American toads and Fowler's toads. She also heard the lone calls of a cricket frog and the pickerel that spoke from the edge of the pond.

"Got it," she said. "Time to go."

Her pickup headed back to the highway, red lights blinking in the dark, while a silver moon cradled the stars.

For more information about Georgia's frogs, log on to http://wwknapp.home.mindspring.com/GAFrog.Toad.html

16-Apr-08 9:45 AM

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Photographer left with frog in throat

Nature calls and frogs, scientists, answer