Declines in Amphibian Populations: Declines in Amphibian Populations

Declines in Amphibian Populations: Declines in Amphibian Populations: "One species from Panama known as the golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) that has lately been struggling against Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. ..."

Declines in Amphibian Populations

One species from Panama known as the golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) that has lately been struggling against Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.

El Cope National Park has already felt the effects of population loss, losing over thirty species of amphibians.

A Nature article from July 19, 2010 showed that species of amphibians have died off over the past ten years, giving biologists no clue to their existence. This might be one reason why Richard Lehtinen referred to cricket frogs as an "annual" species. A technique known as DNA barcoding has been used to identify amphibian species that were previously unknown. A park in Panama recently gave rise to eleven species, but only six of these are still extant. The cause seems to be due to the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (same fungus that Richard Lehtinen's cricket frog paper talked about). B. dendrobatidis affects almost 3,000 amphibian species across the globe, and it causes amphibians to have difficulty breathing because of overly thick skin. The fungal disease has been studied using toe clippings and liver samples. Researchers have compared the effects of the epidemic before and after it struck back in 2004. El Cope, Panama was home to sixty-three species before the decline, but is now only home to thirty-three (five of these were previously unknown).

Amphibians are being removed from their natural habitats by herpetologists for conservations purposes. Anti-fungal solutions are necessary to preserve these animals. Two of the three types of amphibians (frogs and salamanders) are already capable of defending themselves against the fungus because of symbiotic bacteria growing on their skin. The bacteria is currently being swiped from healthy populations and taken to labs for culturing in order to then immunize amphibian populations with large amounts of this advantageous bacteria. It should be in everyone's best interest to insure that the oldest class of four-legged vertebrates continues to flourish worldwide.

Paper reference: doi:10.1038/news.2010.360 http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100719/full/news.2010.360.html