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. )

 

Why amphibians are disappearing

Kevin Zippel explains the magnitude of the amphibian crisis and explains what’s causing their extinction — a perfect storm of habitat loss, pollution, chytrid fungus, and climate change.  This video captures part of his remarks at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in October.

“This is by far the greatest extinction they have ever faced — and for us, this is the greatest species conservation challenge in terms of the numbers being affected.  The planet has not seen anything of this magnitude since the dinosaurs went extinct 65 millions years ago, an event that I remind you the amphibians survived.”

 

Why captive breeding is unavoidable to save amphibians

In this excerpt from Kevin Zippel’s remarks at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, he explains why captive breeding has to be an important part of the solution. Captive breeding has been discussed elsewhere in this blog.

“For hundreds of species, the only hope is temporary sanctuary in captivity.”

Of course, that is what Amphibian Ark will do, with your support.

 

Croak me the money

Can saving frogs lead to prosperity? That’s probably not a good question to ask a scientist with Amphibian Ark 🙂 but Conservation International and other science groups have released a study showing a connection between protecting biodiversity and protecting the future economic productivity of a region. Key excerpt: “70 percent of the world’s highest priority areas for biodiversity conservation also contain significant value in ecosystem services such as fresh water, food, carbon storage, storm buffers and other natural resources that sustain human life and support social and economic development.”

This study should help national leaders engage their industries about what’s  best for long-term prosperity. It’s great to see the biodiversity camp producing reports like this.

 

Climate change and the sixth major extinction event

The U.N. conference on climate change in Bali is generating a flurry of headlines that should make the biodiversity camp jealous.  It’s a boisterous, argumentative, messy, emotional cacaphony — but from a satellite view, we can take heart that the crisis is being discussed, and progress being made.  (The Convention on Biological Diversity Web site has a news page where you can track stories from the conference.) According to Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the conference: “The outcome of this conference will, to a degree, determine whether Bali — and other vulnerable places — are destined to become a lost paradise, or not. If the outcome of this conference keeps pace with the many positive political signals of the past year, we are on a good road to preventing a lost paradise.” Another threatened paradise discussed at the conference is the Amazon forest. The WWF announced that 60 percent of the Amazon could be lost by 2030 because of global warming and deforestation.

Reading all of the stories coming from Bali, and reading much less about the dire plight of animal life, I was reminded of a Jack Nicholson line in the movie, “As Good As It Gets.” Jack’s character is pleading with a friend to help him think through a personal crisis, and when the friend’s advice isn’t helpful, Jack bellows: “I’m drowning here, and you’re describing the water!” (And what about the Elvis verse, “A little less talk, a little more action”?) Imagine either line being croaked by a frog, the last in a species, covered in chytrid somewhere in South America, that somehow was able to read the news out of Bali.

The irony is this: Climate change is heating up earth’s sixth major extinction event, but we can’t get enough people focused on the biodiversity crisis because they’re concentrating on climate change. It’s not a complaint. Just the situation we’re in.

 

Story dissects Amphibian Ark tie to biology teachers

The Atlanta Journal Constitution was at the National Association of Biology Teachers conference last week and filed this story mentioning the new partnership with Amphibian Ark.

 

Jeff Corwin video thanks biology teachers for hopping on board

Check out Jeff Corwin’s video thank you to the National Association of Biology Teachers for their new partnership with Amphibian Ark. It’s being shown at the NABT’s conference in Atlanta tonight. I remember watching another video of Jeff on YouTube in which he explained his roots in education, having studied at Bridgewater State College, the first teachers college in the U.S.  … that his best friend is a teacher … and that he considers it the most important job in the world. So Jeff Corwin talking to teachers about the amphibian crisis is a natural fit.

The frogs have a terrific ally in Jeff Corwin (CNN Planet in Peril with Anderson Cooper, The Jeff Corwin Experience on Animal Planet).

 

Biology teachers get behind amphibian crisis

Tonight in Atlanta, the National Association of Biology Teachers will announce they’re formally partnering with Amphibian Ark to avert the amphibian mass extinction.  Here’s the news release.

This is really important. Consider the sheer, numerical power of the partnership:

• There are 6,000 biology teachers that are in the association…
• And let’s say each of them has 100 students…
• And each of those students has a sibling, and 1.5 parents, and 2 grandparents, and 2 close friends — and tells them all about the crisis
• That’s 6,000 teachers, 600,000 students, another 600,000 sisters and brothers, 900,000 parents, 1.2 million grandparents, and another 1.2 million friends — all informed, spreading the word, demanding and taking action

Like a frog jumping into a pond, the ripple effect of biology teachers rallying behind Amphibian Ark can be transformational for this cause.

 

A pleasure to read

Just a superb post on the crisis.