30 frog species, including 5 unknown to science, killed off by amphibian plague in Panama

[Frog News]

Mongabay News (California, USA) July 19th, 2010 02:13 PM: 30 frog species, including 5 unknown to science, killed off by amphibian plague in Panama

With advanced genetic techniques, researchers have drawn a picture of just how devastating the currently extinction crisis for the world's amphibians has become in a new study published in the Proceedings of the Nation Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Studying frog populations using DNA barcoding in Panama's Omar Torrijos National Park located in El Copé researchers found that 25 known species and 5 unknown species have vanished since 1998. None have returned.

Amphibians are threatened in many parts of the world by pollution, habitat loss, invasive species, over-exploitation, pesticides, and climate change, yet the big killer of the world's amphibians is disease: chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease, is wiping out frogs even in the world's most untouched habitats.

To determine just how devastating chytridiomycosis has become, researchers with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) looked at the well-surveyed Omar Torrijos National Park in Panama. Surveys had discovered 63 species of frogs in the park prior to the disease's arrival. Using DNA barcoding, however, researchers were able to identify 11 species that had been unknown to science, bringing the total to 74 species. Five of the unknown species had also vanished due to the disease.

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[Jace]

Articles like this are incredibly frightening and eye-opening. What can an average person, such as myself, do to help stop the possible mass extinction of an entire species? It's hard to wrap my mind around how many species have already been lost...and how many more are threatened.

[John]

There's almost zero we can do except give money to organizations like Amphibian Ark in order to fund research into the problem.