Disease, habitat loss and climate change threatens amphibians

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Disease, habitat loss and climate change threatens amphibians
Ian Sample Science correspondent
The Guardian
07 Jul 2006

Fifty of the world’s leading conservation experts are calling for an urgent rescue mission to save frogs, newts and other amphibians from extinction. They believe fast action is needed to save the planet’s 5,743 amphibian species after research showing that 32.5% are threatened.

Up to 122 amphibian species have become extinct since 1980. Since the 1960s these vertebrates have gone into sharp decline as humans have encroached on their habitat. Climate change and infectious diseases have also taken their toll.

Writing today in the US journal Science, the conservationists propose a $400m (217m) initiative, the Amphibian Survival Alliance, to dispatch “ rapid response” teams to collect endangered amphibians for captive breeding. The alliance is also to investigate lethal amphibian diseases and environmental changes.

The alliance is expected to become part of the World Conservation Union, which monitors endangered species and which has developed international treaties to urge governments to fund conservation.

Amphibians are considered delicate sentinels of environmental change. Sudden collapses in their populations in the 1980s and 1990s sparked research. Some scientists believe the fungal disease chytridiomycosis, which has spread round the globe, may be to blame in many cases.

Last year, English Nature said the disease was found in Britain for the first time, after infected bullfrogs, imported from North America, had escaped. The organisation destroyed 11,000 infected frogs and is investigating to see if the disease is established here. Predictions suggest that the fungus — which can wipe out 50%80% of amphibians within four to six months of its appearance — emerged from South African toads but is spreading steadily, by about 17 miles ... read more...