Frog in Australia goes from 'extinct' to very, very endangered

[Frog News]

Mongabay News (California, USA) March 7th, 2010 07:33 PM: Frog in Australia goes from 'extinct' to very, very endangered

Facing habitat loss, pollution, climate change, and the devastating chytrid fungus, there has been little positive news about amphibians recently. However, a story out of Australia brings a much needed respite from bad news.

In 2008 Luke Pearce, a fisheries conservation officer, stumbled on a frog that had been thought to be extinct for over thirty years. Not recorded since the 1970s, Pearce rediscovered the yellow-spotted bell frog (Litoria castanea) on rural Australian farmland in the Southern Tableland of New South Wales.

Continued in Full Article

[tgampper]

I know its a little late, but I found an article from the Voice of America (voa.gov) archive that may interest some of you:

Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain.

Back From the Dead - 'Extinct' Frog Found in Australian Stream

Phil Mercer | Sydney 05 March 2010

A species of frog has been found alive on a farm in Australia more
than 30 years after it was thought to have become extinct. Environment
officials have said a thriving population of yellow-spotted bell frogs
has been found in a remote creek in New South Wales.
The yellow-spotted bell frog is back from the dead. It was thought to
have become extinct but has now been seen for the first time since
1973.
Dr. David Hunter, a threatened species officer at the New South Wales
Environment Department, was there when about 100 frogs were found in a
remote stream, the location of which is being kept secret.

"This was definitely the most exciting moment of my career and I'd be
surprised if I'll repeat it," he said. "We really don't want anyone
going to the site, trying to see the bell frog or capture the bell
frog, because there's always the possibility that that could actually
introduce an unknown pathogen into the population and cause a
problem.'
The yellow-spotted bell frog's disappearance is likely to have been
caused by a range of factors, including disease, a loss of habitat and
pollution.
Experts believe that exposure to a deadly fungus that arrived in
Australia from Africa in the 1970s decimated frog numbers.
A collection of tadpoles has been established at Taronga Zoo in Sydney
as part of a plan to re-populate rivers and streams.
The zoo's Michael McFadden says the breeding program should help this
vulnerable species survive.

"We need to get an insurance population so that if something bad does
happen over the next year and they are totally gone, we have at least
not lost that species and we can work at re-introducing them back into
their natural habitat," McFadden said.
Scientists have warned there are more than 40 threatened frog species
fighting for survival in Australia.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has said that
one-third of the world's 6,000 species of amphibians are under threat
of extinction.
The New South Wales Environment Minister, Frank Sartor, said the
discovery of yellow-spotted bell frogs was the amphibian equivalent of
discovering the Tasmanian Tiger, a carnivorous Australian marsupial
that died out in the 1930s.

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