Biodiversity is slipping through our fingers, study shows

Six years ago, promises were made by governments from around the world involving the mass extinctions facing so many animal classes, chief among them the amphibian class. The governments vowed to halt the decline in biodiversity by 2o1o. Well, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) just issued a report that says, in essence, “let’s not kid ourselves, when next year comes around, it’s going to be bleak.”

IUCN, which puts out the Red List of most endangered species, has produced a 150-page report that details the loss of biodiversity earth has experienced over the last 5 years. “Biodiversity continues to decline and next year no one will dispute that,” said the report’s senior editor. “It’s happening everywhere.”

Here’s a link to story I just read about this.  (Click HERE.)

An excerpt from the IUCN Web site:

The report shows nearly one third of amphibians, more than one in eight birds and nearly a quarter of mammals are threatened with extinction. For some plant groups, such as conifers and cycads, the situation is even more serious, with 28 percent and 52 percent threatened respectively. For all these groups, habitat destruction, through agriculture, logging and development, is the main threat and occurs worldwide.

In the case of amphibians, the fungal disease chytridiomycosis is seriously affecting an increasing number of species, complicating conservation efforts. For birds, the highest number of threatened species is found in Brazil and Indonesia, but the highest proportion of threatened or extinct birds is found on oceanic islands. Invasive species and hunting are the main threats. For mammals, unsustainable hunting is the greatest threat after habitat loss. This is having a major impact in Asia, where deforestation is also occurring at a very rapid rate.

 

Frogs get feature treatment in magazine

From the American Airlines in flight magazine, American Way, a full feature on the amphibian crisis. Here’s nice excerpt mentioning Amphibian Ark:

The idea of the Amphibian Ark initiative is to get out in front of the population crashes and to collect healthy frogs, whisk them to safety, and establish breeding stocks — with the hope of reintroducing the species to the wild when the coast is clear. In Australia, scientists have modified shipping containers to create frog “clean rooms” in the field. In the United States, they’ve saved the Wyoming toad in captivity, but it has disappeared from the high plains, and reintroduced populations keep encountering the deadly fungus. Biologists are also rushing to respond as the fungus attacks the boreal toad in Colorado and the red-legged frog in California’s Sierra Nevada. And many more frog rescues are underway in Costa Rica and several other countries.

Full story HERE.

 

Frog video that’ll wake you up

Get your webbed feet hopping with this video from the Missouri Department of Conservation that I somehow missed last year.

 

Frogs vanishing in Europe

Frogs are disappearing at an alarming rate in Europe: “Fifty-nine percent of all European amphibians and 42 percent of reptiles are declining and face even greater risk than European mammals and birds, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature said.” CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY.

 

Raining tadpoles

Raining tadpoles? Well, this is a frog blog, so I suppose I have to post this one: Nanao, Japan, has experienced a reported storm of tadpoles falling from the sky. Here’s the full story: CLICK HERE.

 

Frog loving CEOs in Prince Charles video

Nice to see Prince Charles’ Rainforests Project placing frogs into the hands (and on the shoulders) of Richard Branson, Michael Dell, Eric Schmidt (Google) and the CEOs of many other large companies that clearly are committed to environmental stewardship. Gotta talk to my peeps at Amphibian Ark about following up with these business leaders, to see if they can help Amphibian Ark some day! Of course, by aligning with this rainforest charity, they are already doing tons.

 

Toad invasion

What happens when a pond dries up and there aren’t any fish left to dine on toad eggs? This video shows one result of an interrupted food chain. This is happening in Marysville, California, north of Sacramento.

 

Lake Titicaca Frog

Veronica from Bolivia just told me about a frog I hadn’t heard of before — Telmatobius culeus, or the Lake Titicaca frog.  This species has to deal with very thin oxygen high in the Andes, so mother nature has given it special characteristics. The following is excerpted from Livingunderworld.org. Note that the species is considered vulnerable and yet people are reportedly eating them.  Full article HERE.

Telmatobius culeus is referred to as the Lake Titicaca Frog, and is only found in Lake Titicaca. Because of the lower oxygen content in and around the lake, T. culeus must have an efficient method of obtaining the necessary amount of oxygen for survival. To do this, T. culeus respires mainly by means of cutaneous respiration (breathing through the skin), is exclusively aquatic, and possesses large folds of skin all over the body that make it appear flabby and prehistoric. The extra folds of skin increase the amount of oxygen absorbed through the skin because they increase the surface area to volume ratio; a characteristic that is also observed in other permanently aquatic amphibians. These frogs also do “push-ups” that create small disturbances in the water, which increases oxygen flow. The unique blood of T. culeus also aids oxygen absorption. The blood has the smallest erythrocytes (red blood cells) of all the amphibians, and the highest amount of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin are molecules in the blood that bind to oxygen, so the more hemoglobin an animal has, the more oxygen it can carry in the blood at one time. Because of their aquatic nature, these frogs have evolved reduced lungs, and rely almost entirely on cutaneous respiration.

Although classed as “vulnerable” with C.I.T.E.S., T. culeus are eaten in restaurants in Bolivia and Peru, and are a popular tourist dish. Recently, they have been collected for use in what the natives call frog juice, or Peruvian viagra. The frogs are literally put in a blender, and consumed.

 

Frog killing fungus chytrid found in the Philippines

Kevin Zippel from Amphibian Ark just emailed that the chytrid (Bd) fungus that chokes the breath from 80% of the world’s amphibian species it touches has landed in the Philippines. As you will read in THIS STORY, it’s been present for a least two years there. Five indigenous species are affected so far: the Luzon striped frog (Rana similis) has “practically disappeared from the lowland forests of Mount Labo on the southeast tip of the main Philippine island of Luzon”; the Luzon stream frog (Rana luzonensis); two species of the Luzon fanged frog (Limnonectes woodworth and Limnonectes macrocephalus); and the Puddle frog (Occidozyga laevis).

 

Frog stars with Prince Charles, William, Harry to save the rainforests

Daniel Craig, Prince Charles, Pele, Prince William, Prince Harry, Robin Williams, Joss Stone, Harrison Ford, and Kermit the Frog costar with a bright, green frog for a video PSA supporting the Prince’s Rainforest Project. There is a frog in every scene, and no other animal, which underscores that people are starting to get it: amphibians are the canaries in the coal mine for our planet’s health — and our personal health, too. As you check out the Prince’s Rainforest Project, keep Amphibian Ark in mind, as well.

Wish we had been able to pull off something this magnificent during 2008 the year of the frog. But what a great boost to 2009.