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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 3: Frogs Near Extinction

It’s not easy being green--and many of the world’s frog species are nearing extinction.

The World Conservation Union said on September 21, 2005, that the frog epidemic is “one of the worst extinction crises of our time,” and announced a global action to stop the problem from getting worse.

Decades of pollution, habitat loss, climate change and exposure to the deadly fungus chytrid have dramatically reduced the amphibian population across the globe.

“This is a kind of Noah’s Ark situation for amphibians, particularly because of the fungus,” Claude Gascon, World Conservation Union specialist group chairman, told The Australian.

Gascon also said the devastation is so great that there was “no hope of saving a lot of these species if we leave them in the wild.”

Frogs are considered to be one of the most adaptable creatures because they can live in water and on land. Frogs also absorb oxygen and water through their porous skin.

Australia’s southern corroboree frog is believed by scientists to be the world’s most endangered species of frog. The yellow and black amphibian's population has shrunk to less than 200 living in the wild. Scientists have spent years researching ways to develop a captive breeding program for the southern corroboree frog in an effort to build up the population to more than 2,000.

Other frog species that are in trouble include the Golden Toad of Costa Rica and the Mississippi gopher frog.

--Written by Leah Williams

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