Frog Extinctions as Indicators of Environmental Problems Essay

The importance of El Valle De Anton spurred the movement to create systems to preserve frogs worldwide. In Panama a town name El Valle De Anton once deeply respected their golden tree frogs, and ironically they were not disturb when the frogs started disappearing. When the corpses started to pile up, the scientific community began to become concerned and began an effort to preserve the golden frog species and what they found was that frogs from around the world had been plagued by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis-batrachos (or “Bd” for short). This plague is very hard to stop, as we cannot purge the entire planet of the disease, and the plague spreads incredibly quickly.

Researchers are currently trying to gain knowledge on the extent of the problem; how the parasite works, what species can be infected, and once infected, what species experience the least amount of symptoms. They believe that by infecting native tree frogs with this parasite, they may be able to increase the amount of parasites while decreasing the amount of toads. L.Pizzatto and R. Shine (2011) had three assumptions. “(1) The parasite has no detrimental effect on the frogs; (2) the frogs are capable of maintaining a lungworm infection long term; and (3) infective larvae passed in the frog’s faeces are capable of infecting toads and reducing their viability.” (p.546)

Which amphibian has red eyes, yellow feet, and looks like a leaf? Red Eyed Tree Frogs of course! Because Frogs are amphibians, they spend most of their time in water or wet places. Interestingly, Female will lay their eggs in water, when these eggs hatch they become tadpoles. These baby frogs have many stages such as, developing back legs, growing front legs, becoming a juvenile frog, and finally losing its tail and becoming an adult. Red Eyed Tree Frogs Wake up at dusk and go on the prowl for insects and fruit, which are its main diet. Also, when red eyed tree frogs sleep, they curl their feet and shut their eyes, they look exactly like a leaf, this helps from camouflage from predators. These loveable leaping

Overall for this change project, we have learned that the population of frogs has been decreasing all over the world. There are many factors that decrease their population like agriculture, invasive species, and the population of humans. Specifically, in California, only 40% of the historical sites in the Northwest area have Foothill Yellow-Legged Frogs, and this has the highest percentage out of all of California. These frogs are indicators for the environment, meaning they can determine if the area around them has changed dramatically due to their permeable skin. For our service project, we removed invasive plants like the Himalayan Blackberries and dug creek beds for the frogs. From this, we were able to improve the levelness of the area

Known in the scientific community as Bufo marinus, cane toads were introduced to Australia in the mid-1900’s t rate from their native home of South America. Sugarcane crops were at risk of destruction from the infestation of beetles, and these species were brought in to help counter the negative effect that the beetles were having on farms. These amphibians have the ability to grow up to 4.4 pounds, and were soon doing more harm than good. Not only were the cane toads eating the beetles that they were meant to, but they also started including native insect-eaters in their diets (Roach). This new addition to their food source helped the toads to thrive and expand their habitat region.

The mountain yellow-legged frog is declining due to the introduction of trout, contaminants, increased levels of ultraviolet radiation, and the fungal disease, chytridiomycosis. David Bradford, one of the first witnesses to the decline in the late seventies, noticed the species dropping because of the red-leg disease. Because this is a secondary infection, the frog’s immune system was weakened before the disease became existent. The chytrid fungus was first cited in the Sierra Nevada in 2001, brought here from African clawed frogs, but studies have suggested that the disease has been evident since the mid-‘70s. Nearly three decades later, the mountain yellow-legged frog is still declining. Currently, with a ninety-eight percent decline, there

Chapter One details the ancestry of frogs and examines the timeline of amphibians on Earth, as well as the increase in frog extinction rate. Kolbert argues that the observed extinction rates which are exceeding expected background extinction rates suggest that catastrophe is ahead for Earth. Humans are key to the extinction of Panamanian frogs due to their spreading of the Chtrid fungus, which is not native to Panama. Thus, Kolbert sees humans

Many sources say that the initial spread of this invasive species began at the end of the 1800's when bullfrogs were shipped to California to fill hungry loggers appetite for frog legs. The frogs competed with the other native species with the supply of natural resources while also consuming and exploiting the native amphibian species as well. Worldwide Rana catesbeiana has driven over one-hundred native species of frogs to extinction (Save The Frogs! et al. 2013). This is a huge impact on amphibian wildlife worldwide because there are about 4,800 species of frogs. Over the past hundred years the bullfrog has wiped out over 2% of the world's species of frogs. Studies have shown one of the reasons bullfrogs will cripple Arizonian ecosystems and the native amphibian species directly is because a female bullfrog’s physiology

Over the last thirty years or so the population of frogs has begun to decline across the world. Not only until

More animal species are added to the Endangered Species List that are threatened by extinction every year. Animals’ extinction is caused by human activities or natural causes. Unexpected amounts of animals are considered to be critically endangered and near extinction. Unfortunately, the Axolotl also known as the “water monster” or the “Mexican Salamander” is critically endangered and can only be found in Lake Xochimilco, south of Mexico City. Mexico is home to 373 amphibian species. It is placed fifth with the largest amount of amphibian diversity among the richest countries.

A glass frog that closely resembles Kermit the Frog has been found! Hyalinobatrachium dianae was recently found in the tropical wet forests and premontane rainforests in Costa Rica by researchers from the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center in April 2015. H. dianae is a type of glass frog that belongs to the genus Hyalinobatrachium and the family Centrolenidae, which consists of about 150 different glass frog species. Senior researcher Dr. Brian Kubicki named the glass frog in honor of his mother, Janet Diane Kubicki, who passionately supported natural history, fishes and amphibians. Today, a very small population of H. dianae can be found at elevations between 400-800 meters in Central and South America.

We speculate that the southern toad is in higher abundance in the direct vicinity of water versus the dryer surrounding area due to the breeding season (February- October) and the high levels of nutrition needed (Meshaka, W. E., J.R., &

In their movements, northern leopard frogs can encounter native grass prairie as well as crop fields and grazed pastures that potentially can act as barriers to their movements. Since grassland prairie and wetlands in the PPR have been greatly reduced, the wetlands that are highly depended on by the northern leopard frog to complete its’ life cycle in the prairie pothole region have become separated by greater distances. Depending on the cover type through which a frog must move, it can become exposed to the sun, wind, and other environmental factors for longer periods of time that, in turn, could cause them to lose water faster than if moving through a more naturally vegetated area. In addition, they may become more visible to predators.

The Southern Corroboree Frog is a critically endangered species found on Mt Kosciusko, in Victoria, Australia.

Frogs, toads, caecilians, and salamanders are the members of the class Amphibian (amphi- meaning “on both sides” and bios- meaning “life”). These members always require water for reproduction. Most Amphibians undergo metamorphosis, which is a usually degenerative pathological change in the structure of a particular body tissue. And, in the case of Amphibians, it is the changing of a tadpole into