Amphibian Conservation

Many of us grew up watching Kermit the frog swimming on a television show called Sesame Street. Certainly, we can remember reading the fairy tale of the frog that turns into a prince after receiving a kiss. However, in the Bible, frogs were certainly less endearing when they became an odious scourge facing Egypt. Indeed, frogs have been a featured animal throughout our culture in movies, books, cartoons and video games. Unfortunately, before long, we do have our memories to remind us of the frog.

The first problem began there nearly two decades when biologists noticed a dramatic decline in amphibian populations. Since then, the decline has got progressively worse. In fact, biologists now estimate that less than one third of known amphibian in the world are threatened while twenty two species have already disappeared.

Frogs are amphibians the majority and they are very valuable to humans because they eat insects that other animals do not touch. In a world without amphibians, insects go unnoticed and threaten public health and food supplies. In addition, frogs serve important biomedical purposes. Some frog species produce a chemical used as a painkiller for humans, while one case is still bound to a chemical that disables the virus that causes AIDS.

A list of known endangered amphibians that includes frogs and toads, salamanders, newts, and the little-known group of legless, worm-like creatures called caecilians. Caecilians are extremely ecologically useful because as predators they consume harmful insects by the millions. However, frogs are at the forefront of problem in the world of amphibians because they have already lost one hundred and seventy species estimated in the last ten years alone.

There have been many explanations for the sudden loss of amphibians in the past two decades. Some designs, such as, human development affect habitat, air pollution and climate change have been put forward .. However, all these reasons fail to explain the extinction than amphibians have known about the nature reserves and other relatively undisturbed lands.

It was not until scientists discovered that the devastation of frogs and other amphibians has been caused by a fungus called chytrid that the threat of extinction of amphibians has been known. The fungus is unstoppable and untreatable in the wild, and kills by attacking the keratin in the resistant layer of the skin of the animal. Since frogs use their skin to breathe and drink, it is believed that the fungus "chokes" their death.

The fungus was discovered in Australia and the years in Panama a decade ago and has since spread throughout Europe and the Americas, causing skin infections and eventual death in all species of amphibians he attacks. Following this fungus, nearly one third of known species of frogs in the world today threatened with extinction.

Consider that Australia and Panama have already lost two native species of frogs and more than half of Australia is threatened frog species are already infected by this deadly disease. Last year, Japan reported its first cases of frog deaths from the fungus, prompting research groups to declare an emergency in this country. On the Caribbean island of Dominica, the fungus has almost wiped out the mountain chicken, a frog species considered an island delicacy. Meanwhile, the mountain yellow-legged frog has almost disappeared from Yellowstone National Park.

The fate of the frog and other amphibians has led to the development of a proposed $ 500 million project called Amphibian Ark hopes to recruit five hundred zoos, botanical gardens, aquariums, universities and other institutions around the world to support at least one species of the class of amphibians. To increase awareness of the endangered frog, zoos and conservatories worl.