The Kihansi spray toad is now extinct in the wild

The Kihansi spray toad used to live in the spray region of the Kihansi waterfall, in Tanzania, and relied heavily on the spray from the waterfall to maintain a constant temperature and humidity in its environment. But due to the construction of a dam which funded by the World Bank, the waterfall has been disrupted, and the Kihansi spray toad has recently been declared Extinct in the Wild.

A number of small populations of this species exist in US zoos, and in spit of several setbacks with the initial population of 500 animals that were collected, the current population now sits at around 470 animals.

How many more species will become extinct in the wild, relying entirely on ex situ “ark” populations for their survival, before we start to take better care of our planet and ALL of its inhabitants?

More information on the Kihansi spray toad can be found here.

 

Inbreeding not causing malformed amphibians

A new, disturbing trend of amphibian deformities (or malformities) has been widely reported. Apparently, one of the hypotheses has been that the culprit is inbreeding. Don’t know if many gave that much credence. Well, a new study disproves the dueling banjos theory. According to Live Science:

“This is really the first study to test — and disprove — the hypothesis that inbreeding is responsible for malformations in salamanders,”said researcher Rod Williams, Purdue University Assistant Professor of Forestry and Natural Resources.

“Amphibians are a good bio-indicator species — real canaries in the coal mine,” Williams said.

The mystery is not yet solved.

“We’ve crossed out inbreeding as a possibility, an important step forward,” DeWoody said, “but there’s a lot of work yet to do.”

It is widely believed that pollution is a culprit. Here is one of many stories to that effect.:

 

Snoring Mississippi gopher frog making a comeback

AP Photo/Bill Haber

Mississippi gopher frogs are finger snacks for forest predators and “that’s the nature of the business if you’re an amphibian.” So says biologist Mike Sisson in an Associated Press report about the relatively good summer that the nearly-extinct gopher frogs have had in Harrison County, Mississippi. I didn’t know that this species’ call sounds like someone snoring. There’s a joke in there somewhere. Here’s the story, and here’s an excerpt:

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.

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.

 

Half of Europe’s amphibian species to be extinct in 42 years

We’ve been talking about at least one-third of amphibian species disappearing in our lifetime unless emergency measures are taken. Now this: scientists with the Zoological Society of London predicting that half of Europe’s amphibian species are en route to extinction by 2050, primarily because of habitat destruction, global warming and the chytrid fungus. Amphibian Ark patron Sir David Attenborough was on hand at the announcement. This is the first time I’ve noticed a specific year mentioned re: impending extinctions. We’re 42 years away from that doomsdate. There is a plan to avert the mass extinction. It’s called Amphibian Ark.

 An exceprt from the Zoological Society of London Web site:

“Amphibians are the lifeblood of many environments, playing key roles in the functions of ecosystems, and it is both extraordinary and terrifying that in just a few decades the world could lose half of all these species,” commented Sir David Attenborough. “I am delighted to be working with the Zoological Society of London to promote amphibian conservation, in the hope that we will not be hearing the dying croaks of these amazing creatures in the years to come.”

 

Gorillas and polar bears make eye contact, and we save them, while frogs hop at our feet and struggle for recognition

“It’s my job to be optimistic, but it’s a scary prospect. It’s difficult enough to convince people to save an elephant or a gorilla. It’s much harder to get them to care about a tiny tree frog.” 

Piotr Naskrecki, those of us who love amphibians know how you feel. I’ve been reading a gorgeous photography and essay book, The Smaller Majority, by Piotr Naskrecki. I emphasize that the book is more than scores of amazing photographs. Naskrecki, the director of Conservation International’s Invertebrate Diversity Initiative, and research associate at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, captures in words what so many of us with Amphibian Ark find so utterly frustrating as we attempt to draw attention to the crisis facing amphibians – and the seeming indifference to that plight. These are excerpts from the forward in the book I find so spot on:

“Most of animal life on Earth is small. Over 90 percent of known species are smaller than a human finger, smaller, in fact, than your fingernail. Our perspective on reality is severaly handicapped by our gargantuan size, rare giants surrounded by the smaller majority. Our enormous size prevents us from appreciating, or even noticing, most of what shares this planet with us and forces us to focus our attention on other equally large, or larger, creatures. We proclaim kinship with wolves and deer, even while we hold our breath before squeezing the trigger, and cultures across the globe revere eagles, bears, and lions, but few pay any attention to lizards and snails. Size is the great divider…

“Unlike most mammals, who live in a sensual world dominated by scents, our is a species that relies on  vision. Eyes help us make emotional connection with other people as well as other species. We prefer animals that can return our gaze, which puts many smaller organisms, some of which may have “too many” eyes or none at all, at a great disadvantage in the struggle for our affection.

“From pollination to seed dispersal, from soil production to waste removeal, and from water filtering to being food for others, invertebrates make Earth a livable planet. As tragic and unforgivable as it would be, the disappearance of mountain gorillas would have far smaller ecological repercussions than the extinction of a single species of savanna termite. We should never have to choose between these two species, of course.”

To learn more about Piotr’s work, check out this story in the Harvard University Gazette.

 

Polar bears and amphibians on the “thin ice” list

And now, the polar bear. Yesterday’s decision by the U.S. government to place the polar bear on the endangered species list comes after the U.S. Geological Survey predicted that the world’s polar bear population could shrink to one-third its current size by 2050.  The IUCN Red List, which transcends borders, states that the polar bear is “considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.” For a table showing how the different animal classes compare on percentage of species considered endangered — it’s pretty much all bad — I condensed an IUCN table into what you see below.

 

Early returns on Year of the Frog’s first leap

Thanks to hundreds of hopping children and their parents, dozens of caring zoos, a lot of reporters and bloggers, and the compassion of authorities like Sir David Attenborough and Jeff Corwin, the global campaign to save amphibians got a nice lift on the eve of the Year of the Frog.

LONDON — Sir David Attenborough applies finishing touches to the new frog sculpture at the London Zoo. Story here.

BANGLADESH — Below, kids at the Dhaka Zoo in Bangladesh have some leapfrog fun. (Here’s story from Daily Star in Bangladesh.)

LOS ANGELES – Above, The Living Desert’s leapfrog event (in California), and story from The Desert Sun. 

ST. LOUIS — Below, the St. Louis Zoo gets kids leapfrogging, photo courtesy of KSDK-TV.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (below, left), and WIRRAL, UK (right), with story.

 

We know of other news stories on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day including some in London; India; India’s national newspaper; Scotland; Australia; London again; United Arab Emirates; Bangladesh (see above); as well as a list of VIBs (B for bloggers) mentioned in the previous post.

More to come.

 

Countdown to 2008 Year of the Frog

We are extactly two weeks away from 2008 The Year Of The Frog which needs to bring governments, companies, and the rest of us together in a massive effort to stop a mass extinction. There are a lot of people hopping as high and far as they can to build momentum leading into the big year. The previously announced partnership between Amphibian Ark and the National Association of Biology Teachers, with the congratulatory video by Jeff Corwin, is a nice start. The leadership demonstrated by Clorox, as the first corporate sponsor of Amphibian Ark, is another big win. Later this week there will be news about a New Year’s Eve leapfrog event at zoos around the world, and a cool thing that Sir David Attenborough is doing (no, the 81-year-old isn’t going to be leapfrogging, to our knowledge!). More will be announced in the weeks to come. But come New Year’s Day, there should be a steady stream of events and announcements to raise awareness, and funds, to do what’s needed to prevent 500 amphibian species from their extinction. At the very least, we know that in 2oo8:

• On Jan. 3, Sir David Attenborough will release his book on amphibians and reptiles, “Life in Cold Blood,” followed by a companion documentary. Sir David is the patron of Amphibian Ark, the biggest ally the cause could ever hope for.
• Feb. 29, known as Leap Day in the U.S., is going to be a global celebration of amphibians, and that’s when you’re going to see zoos everywhere really fire up their machinery to get the public involved.

Of course, this all boils down to money. Millions of dollars are needed to put the species into protective custody, before they disappear. You can make a contribution on the Amphibian Ark Web site.

 

Year of the frog video for children

We’re only weeks away from 2008 The Year of the Frog! Here’s a video, created by the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Auburn Career Center, that features “kids telling kids” about the amphibian crisis — what’s happening, and why, and most important, what kids can do about it. Kudos to the folks in Cleveland for making this video.

 

Clorox steps up to fight killer frog fungus

The campaign to stop the mass extinction of amphibian species got a huge shot in the arm today from Clorox – the first official corporate sponsor of Amphibian Ark’s Year of the Frog campaign. Clorox issued a press release today and launched a “save the frog” Web site explaining it was providing funding to Amphibian Ark — plus donating a really big amount of Clorox bleach that will be used worldwide in the fight against the killer frog fungus, chytrid.  Kevin Zippel, Amphibian Ark’s program officer, is doing news interviews this morning about it. And on the Web site (also posted on YouTube and shown in this post) there is a great video explaining the amphibian crisis, chytrid’s role, and how Clorox bleach is used to help in the rescue of threatened species. Also on the Web site is a video of Jeff Corwin talking about it.

Just a terrific leadership move by Clorox. So, you have to be wondering: bleach…and frogs? Here’s something from the press release that explains it:

Clorox® Regular-Bleach, an EPA-registered fungicide, is one of the most important tools in Amphibian Ark’s fight to save the frogs. Frogs are treated with anti-fungal medicine and anything else that has contact with water during amphibian rescue is treated with a bleach solution, from boots and clothing to instruments and transport containers, to be sure researchers are not spreading fungus to new, uncontaminated areas. When zoos and aquariums bring frogs that cannot be saved in the wild into protective custody, their enclosures are treated with a bleach solution daily for the first weeks to be sure they remain fungus-free. (Organizations, including U.S. Geological Survey, recommend using a 1:10% solution of bleach, to disinfect equipment that comes in contact with chytrid fungus. )