Posted on 10/04/2005 8:40:21 AM PDT by GreenFreeper
Environmentalists proposed a $404 million global action plan yesterday at a conference in Washington D. C. to protect and preserve amphibian species. The conference came in response to a study last year that revealed one-third of all amphibian species face a high risk of extinction.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International joined other wildlife groups to plan further research studies and long term initiatives to protect amphibian habitats. Next is the task of securing funds for the projects from private institutions and individual donors.
"The frogs are trying to tell us something," said Andrew Dobson, a Princeton University professor who studies infectious diseases in the wild. "We're making the world a sicker place and, mercifully, the frogs have picked up on it before humans."
The Global Amphibian Assessment, released last October, revealed that of 5,743 amphibian species, 34 are known to be extinct and more than a hundred others are believed to have suffered extinction. While scientists said the most common threat to amphibians appears to be the fungal disease chytridomycosis, viral disease, habitat loss, drought and pollution are other commonly cited reasons for population declines.
The effect of chytridiomycosis on frog populations in south and central America, Australia, Africa and Europe has become the primary cause for concern as scientists push for captive breeding programs to protect species from the disease.
Not all scientists agree that removing threatened amphibians from the wild is the answer. "We've been running a captive breeding program with the Boreal Toad since 1995," said Cynthia Carey, a professor at the University of Colorado. "We've tried reintroducing them to the wild seven or eight times, but every time they die within a couple of years; if you don't get rid of the fungus, all you're doing is providing it with lunch."
Super scary.
That is the bottom line. And who introduced the fungus amoung us?
I wasn't proposing eradication- simply that the problems needs to be studied and addressed to some degree. A better understanding of how the world works isn't a bad thing to me. Its not so much about protecting said species but learning the reason for the decline and understanding the implications of such problems.
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