Darwin's Frog is Extinct: Males "Nursed" Tadpoles in Vocal Sacs

[tylototriton]

Josh,
The paper is in PLOSONE, so it is freely accessible.

PLOS ONE: The Population Decline and Extinction of Darwin

It may take quite a while for the IUCN to update their lists, but I would certainly believe that R. rufum is extinct. It hasn't been seen in decades.

Cheers,
Alex

[MantellaGuy]

Josh,
The paper is in PLOSONE, so it is freely accessible.

PLOS ONE: The Population Decline and Extinction of Darwin

It may take quite a while for the IUCN to update their lists, but I would certainly believe that R. rufum is extinct. It hasn't been seen in decades.

Cheers,
Alex

Lovely thank you both!

When was the last official date of the last sighting, because I thought there was a common practice of having to wait a minimum of half a century before finally listing a species as Extinct?

Sorry, I am very interested in the species, so excuse the questions I have a habit of being very thorough! ha I do not doubt for a moment this species is more than likely lost to extinction, but I enjoy reading

Thank you both and I really hope you have a good Christmas!

Josh

[tylototriton]

I don't know of any specific criteria for determining extinction. For instance, Bufo periglenes has been declared extinct and it was last seen in 1989. I imagine most things take so long to be declared because there isn't intensive study on them, so waiting 50 years makes sense. In the case of R. rufum and B. periglenes both have been rather thoroughly researched, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if this new "extinct" designation is soon accepted.

~Alex