I do hope that as these people tromp around looking for the world's rarest amphibians, that they are using sterile equipment and clothing. There have been outbreaks spread before by careless researchers, and you can see it now on the news.

The whitenose bat fungus, primarily spread by the bats, I am certain is being spread by wildlife biologists. Not ONE film have I seen the researchers wearing gloves, sterile booties, etc., and some visit several caves a day or week. In one article a very emotional wildlife biologist said she sat on the floor and cried her eyes out when she returned home, removed her boots, to find the cleats filled with the crushed bones of dead bats from the two sites she had visited that day.

People involved in this research should have brand new equipment at each site and be dressed in forensic gear a la Andromeda strain, especially if they've worked with diseased amphibians or in places where disease was noted. Encouraging field herping to map species by the general public large scale has probably contributed to the spread of disease. Fad group tree hugging types helping migrating amphibians across the road by placing large numbers of mixed species in buckets has also been unconscionable.

Someone has to sit down and make some common sense rules for this kind of stuff. I haven't seen any SO far.