Name the walking frog, save a species

It’s taken a lot of patience and hard work by the scientists associated with Amphibian Ark, but the organization has just launched its first species naming auction – the first of five that will happen during this 5 for Frogs summer. Details of the auction and the new Ecuadorian species are pasted below — pretty cool that it’s a frog that walks instead of hops. When this auction is through, the auctioneer should yell at the top of his lungs, GOING … GOING … SAVED! If you know people who could write a big check to save amphibians, and would find it really cool to name a new species, please make sure they see this right away.

And, how cool is it that Jeff Corwin and Jean-Michele Cousteau are lending their names to this?!

NEWS RELEASE–Amphibian Ark, a global conservation organization formed in an effort to help save the world’s amphibians from mass extinction, is announcing its first frog naming rights auction, beginning immediately. The highest bid made on www.CharityBuzz.com will win the naming rights to a newly discovered species in the genus Osornophryne, an endangered “walking frog” indigenous to the remote Andes Mountains in Ecuador.

From one-third to one-half of the planet’s 6,000 amphibian species – frogs and toads, salamanders and newts, and caecilians – are in danger of extinction and the walking frog is no exception. The causes for these declines and extinctions come in different forms, including habitat loss, climate change, emerging diseases, pollution, and over-collection for food and pets.

“After thriving for 360 million years, frogs are in harm’s way,” said Jean-Michel Cousteau, supporter of Amphibian Ark and founder of the Oceans Future Society. “Because amphibians are the first to feel the effects of environmental stressors that could ultimately harm humans, the time to act is now.”

Walking frogs are known for having no tadpoles; instead hatched eggs release froglets. And, instead of jumping, they walk slowly along the forests of the Andes.

The winning bidder’s selected name will be published in a scientific journal. Arrangements can also be made to tour the conservation facilities in Ecuador that will protect the species, and see other endangered amphibians in their natural habitat.

The proceeds will be used by Amphibian Ark partners in Ecuador to save some of the country’s most endangered amphibian species – including the new, walking frog. The auction is being conducted by CharityBuzz.

Auctioning off naming rights for species is a growing tactic by wildlife protection organizations to raise the funds necessary to protect our planet’s biodiversity. Recent auctions have allowed philanthropists to name butterflies, monkeys, and fish.

“We are very proud to be working with Amphibian Ark in their incredibly worthy project to help raise money to protect endangered amphibians,” said Coppy Holzman, CEO of CharityBuzz.com. “Based on our prior species naming experience, we fully expect this series of frog naming auctions to be very successful and encourage everyone to visit the site and aid this worthy cause.”

In order to make a bid or learn more about Amphibian Ark and the new walking frog species, please visit http://www.charitybuzz.com/area.do?id=773.

Amphibian Ark is a partnership between the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, and IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. It was formed to develop, promote, and guide short term captive management of threatened amphibians, making possible the long-term survival of species for which adequate protection in the wild is not currently possible. For additional information about Amphibian Ark please visit www.amphibianark.org.

 

Relay race for amphibians

Anna from the Tula, Russia, Exotarium sent me a note and these photos of a Year of the Frog eco-relay race involving students and designed to raise awareness of the amphibian crisis. It was held April 25. Seven schools joined the fun to express their support of efforts to avert the mass extinction. Said Anna:

 

“The pupils invented names and mottos for their teams, painted bright emblems with a picture of a frog, and some of them even devoted poems to frogs. The most amazing and original was the emblem of the team “Qua-ki” of the school № 71 – a joyful frog made of paper. Merry tasks were waiting for the participants of the relay-race. Special relay-race frogs were made for the competitions. The children were supposed to ’save’ frogs from the contaminated environment and to release them into a ‘clean body of water.’ As a first stage the children were offered to find a relay-race frog in the ‘dustbin’ among everyday dust. Now, to be able to carry the saved amphibians to the safe body of water, the participants had to demonstrate their ability to jump as a frog. The children had to jump lengthwise, over a skipping-rope. The fastest frog team, which was first to save a frog, was team “frogling” of school № 28.

 

“Children not only competed in the physical exercises, but also demonstrated their knowledge in an intellectual competition among the team captains, each referred to as “An Expert of Frogs”. All the participants demonstrated good results. The team of the school № 71 was especially good – the captain of this team (Dmitry Sidorov) answered to a maximum number of questions during one minute – on 15 questions, he did not make a single mistake! The winners and participants received diplomas, presents, badges of the 2008 – THE YEAR OF THE FROG campaign, and visited Exotarium free of charge.    

         

 

 

Corwin discovers near-extinct Harlequin frogs in wild in Panama

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.

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.

 

Take the frog quiz

New, very informative and fast-paced videos about the amphibian crisis have been produced by KQED of San Francisco. One of them is even a quiz to test your noggin about froggin. Links are below. Here’s the description: Around the world, frogs are declining at an alarming rate due to threats like pollution, disease and climate change. Frogs bridge the gap between water and land habitats, making them the first indicators of ecosystem changes. Meet the Bay Area researchers working to protect frogs across the state and across the world.

Here’s the full report.

Here’s a great video quiz – see if you really know your frogs.

 

 

Definitely a trend: kissing frogs during Year of the Frog

On Tuesday, the Newport Aquarium in Newport, Kentucky, will shoot a new commercial touting its new frog exhibit, the Frog Bog. Read this story to learn which “lucky” girl won out over 150 others to be the one who kisses the frog. Recently, a real German princess kissed a frog at the Leipzig Zoo, and before that we had frog kissings reported in Australia.

 

 

Northern leopard frogs in Washingon “probably doomed” by Ebola for frogs

(Photo from Wikiepedia)

This story in the Seattle Times explains that the last stronghold for northern leopard frogs in Washington is being attacked by the “Ebola for frogs”, chytrid fungus. Excerpts:

The infection has now struck Potholes Reservoir in Grant County, home to Washington’s last remaining population of northern leopard frogs. Oregon spotted frogs, found at only three sites in the state, have been hit with die-offs — and the deadly fungus.

State wildlife managers say they’re concerned but have so far not mounted any coordinated effort to better understand the danger or protect vulnerable frogs and salamanders.

“People are ignoring it,” Wagner said. “But can we afford to do that?”

It may be too late for the state’s leopard frogs, Wagner suspects. Habitat loss and predation from nonnative bullfrogs and fish have already hammered the species. The fungal infection could be the final dagger.

“They are probably doomed.”

But it may be possible to save other amphibians, if researchers can get a better handle on the fungus and the way it interacts with the other threats that have pushed nearly a third of the world’s amphibian species to the brink, he said.

 

Real live princess kisses frog for Amphibian Ark in Germany

 

This just in from Leipzig, Germany:  Xenia von Sachsen, Princess of Saxony, kisses a frog and argues for “the same kind of environmental lobbying as ocean mammals or big cats.” From the press release:

Today, one hundred primary-school pupils and twenty kindergarten children experienced an unusual, contemporary version of the fairy tale ‘The Frog Prince’ at Leipzig Zoo: there was a visit by Xenia, Princess of Saxony, who has a soft spot for amphibians, and who demonstrated this to the children by giving a frog a symbolic kiss. The twenty-one-year-old was at the zoo as a celebrity ambassador for the ‘2008 – Year of the Frog’ campaign, at the invitation of the zoo director, Dr Junhold.

 

‘The princess represents dynamism and a forward-looking approach’ said Jörg Junhold, explaining why a young princess was chosen for the initiative, to draw attention to amphibian extinction across the world. In taking part, the princess joins in with the efforts made by Sir David Attenborough, who is the patron of the global amphibian campaign and has already been able to take on board personalities such as Jean-Michel Cousteau and Jane Goodall. ‘Frogs should be given the same kind of environmental lobbying as ocean mammals or big cats’, said Xenia, Princess of Saxony, who found out on the spot which amphibian projects Leipzig Zoo supports. The zoo currently has twelve species of amphibians, two of which are categorised as ‘endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): the Blue Poison Dart Frog and the Vietnamese Salamander. Both species can be seen in the ‘Arche’ (Ark) discovery centre, where visitors’ attention is also drawn to the amphibian crisis.

 

The topic of amphibian protection has never been so relevant. Of the roughly 6,000 frogs, toads, salamanders and caecilians known today, thirty to fifty per cent are at risk of extinction. This makes amphibians the most endangered category of vertebrate at present. The reasons for the rapid extinction of the species are environmental pollution, climate change and the increasing destruction of their habitats, as well as the introduction of foreign species and a parasitic chytrid fungus. This fungus, originally only indigenous to South Africa, is spreading at lightning speed through Central and South America and Australia. It attacks the amphibians’ sensitive skin. Wherever the infection proliferates, up to eighty per cent of animals die within only a few months, which can have a devastating effect on ecological communities.

 

 

 

It’s the morning after Earth Day — now what?

On this morning after Earth Day, check out the new campaign by Amphibian Ark to mobilize people so that we can stop the mass extinction of amphibians. Here’s the news release and fact sheet. Here are 50 ways we can help.

 

Earth Day lessons involving frogs

So for Earth Day, how can our amphibian friends help teachers and home school parents instill the right lessons in our children? Here are some good resources:

National Geographic offers a “Frog Alert! Frog Alert!” lesson plan online. It’s designed for kindergarten through second grade, and it focuses on the effects of water pollution.

Go to a nearby stream and clean up a small section by removing garbage. (But be safe.) Here’s a thought providing activity that the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. did this weekend. As you do the cleanup, you can explain what pollution in our waterways does to amphibians.

Here’s a slew of kid-friendly PowerPoint presentations, courtesy of theteachersguide.com.

There’s a kid-friendly lesson on how to draw a frog here.

And, even a lesson plan on tadpole-to-frog developmental stages using clay and Crayola markers.

Finally, spend some time on the Amphibian Ark Web site to explain the dangers facing amphibians, and have the child sign the online petition.

And, come back later this month for more ideas on how your child can help save the frog. Something big is being planned.

 

Frogster video game asks the question, why would the frog ever want to cross the road?

Just in time for Earth Day: Check out this educational video game from the Vancouver Aquarium. Frogster challenges the gamer to protect amphibians from all of their biggest foes, including pollution and chytrid fungus. Among many other activities created by zoos and aquariums, this is a great way to get kids wondering, learning, caring, and helping.

I did a post a few days ago about the real tragedy of frogs crossing roads.