Amphibians are threatened with extinction worldwide

Amphibians Are Threatened With Extinction Worldwide...

Frogs and their relatives are in deep trouble. According to a new study published in the journal Science, one-third of the world's amphibians are declining due to disease, climate change, and habitat loss. Of the 5,743 known species, 1,856 are considered globally threatened in the wild. Up to 168 may be extinct.

Warming temperatures may be heating many cooler species out of house and home. Development, such as that facing the red-legged frog in California, is destroying the ponds and other wetlands amphibians depend on. Meanwhile, the fungal disease chitridiomycosis, which attacks skin, appears to be responsible for many additional declines.

Thin-skinned amphibians readily absorb moisture, air, and pollutants from both land and water. For this reason, they are considered barometers of environmental health, the proverbial canaries in the global coal mine. Scientists say their precipitous decline, tracked by more than 500 scientists participating in the Global Amphibian Assessment project, bodes ill for the future of the planet

Acknowledgements: California Academy of Sciences

Endangered mountain chicken frog

Fresh water dolphins future in crisis - clean up the rivers...

Fresh water dolphins are in crisis and in danger of extinction in Asia. Clean up the polluted riverways and they may have a chance of survival.

Protecting dolphins means protecting their rivers whether it is the Mekong River in Cambodia where the irrawaddy dolphin exist or in China(which is now too late) or in other parts of Asia. The irrawaddy dolphins are not being killed intentially on the Mekong River, but because of dwindling fish stocks fisherman are having to resort to more destructive ways of bringing in the fish. Heavy boat usage of the Mekong is a problem too. There were once thousands of dolphins on this river, but only fourty have been spotted recently, with an estimation of a maximum of eighty remaining.

There are now only four species of river dolphins left worldwide: the boto in the Amazon are believed to be quite prolific, but the baij in China's Yangste(see below), and the bhulan and susu in Asia's Ganges and Indus river systems are critical.

It takes 6-8 years for a dolphin to mature, a pregnancy lasts 10-11 months and only one offspring is born at one time.


The Yangste River dolphin was one of the most endangered species until recently, but has now been declared officially extinct following an extensive survey of its natural habitat.

These freshwater mammals which could grow up to eight feet long and weigh up to a quarter of a ton, were the first large vertabrate forced to extinction through human activity in fifty years, and only the fourth time an entire evolutionary line of mammals have vanished from the face of the earth since the year 1500 AD.

Conservationists described the extinction of the Yangste River dolphins as a shocking tragedy recently, caused not by any persecution but by carelessness through a combination of factors which included unsustainable fishing and mass usage of the river by shipping. It should be an important lesson to other areas where dolphins inhabit.

In the 1950's it was claimed that the Yangste and its neighbouring water courses had a population of thousands of the baiji dolphins, but Chinese industrialisation and the wide transformation of the Yangste River had decimated the population. The Yangste River dolphin was reportedly a most remarkable dolphin that had seperated from other species 20 million years ago, but are officially declared extinct after being in crisis during 2006-2007.


The Yangste River or baiji dolphin may well be extinct, but the other freshwater dolphins in Asia and South America still have a chance of survival if conservationists and local fisherman and industrialists get together and take some action locally - cleaning up the pollution would be a great start.

So protecting dolphins means protecting their rivers!

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The Year of the Frog - frogs are going extinct...

Year of the Frog:

Frogs are going extinct. So are toads, salamanders, newts, and the intriguingly unusual caecilians. In fact, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) estimates that at least one-third of known amphibian species are threatened with extinction. While the major culprit has historically been habitat loss and degradation, many of the declines and extinctions previously referred to as "enigmatic" are now being attributed to the rapidly dispersing infectious disease chytridiomycosis ("chytrid"). This fungus is causing population and species extinctions at an alarming rate. Can you imagine if we were about to lose one-third of the world's mammals?

Chytridiomycosis ("chytrid")
The disease known as chytridiomycosis, results when a chytridiomycete fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis ("chytrid") attacks keratin in the skin tissue of amphibians. Many researchers believe that this infectious fungus inhibits the frog’s ability to respire and osmoregulate, eventually killing the frog. Chytrid has been implicated in amphibian declines in the Americas, Caribbean, and Australia and its range continues to grow.

Chytrid is not the only cause of amphibian decline, but is a likely explanation for unexplained declines in high-altitude, protected regions and may hasten the collapse of populations weakened by other threats such as habitat destruction, climate change, and water and air pollution.


The combined effect of habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, and chytrid cannot be addressed solely in the wild. Captive assurance populations have become the only hope for many species faced with imminent extinction and are an important component of an integrated conservation effort. AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums, with their demonstrated expertise in endangered species breeding programs, have been called upon to meet this conservation challenge.

The IUCN has classified four amphibians in the U.S. to be critically endangered, the Mississippi gopher frog, the Chiricahua leopard frog, the mountain yellow-legged frog, and the Wyoming toad. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed thirty-seven amphibian species under the Endangered Species Act. AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums may be their only hope for survival.

World-wide Cooperation
AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums and the AZA Conservation and Science Department are working closely with our partners to develop and implement a global action plan for amphibian conservation:

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