A “metaphorical Noah’s Ark” is how Claude Gascon describes the action plan drafted last month at an Amphibian Conservation Summit in Washington, D.C. “If implemented, it would hopefully reverse the trend in amphibian extinctions,” says Gascon, an officer of the D.C.–based Conservation International and chairman of the World Conservation Union’s Global Amphibian Specialist Group.
Over the past quarter century, biologists have documented the extinction of nine frog and salamander species, and scientists speculate that another 113 also died out in that time. Those figures are from a report in the Dec. 3, 2004 Science. Data presented at the recent summit indicate that at least one-third of the roughly 6,000 known amphibian species now are at risk of extinction.
Habitat loss, pollution, and climate change pose chronic threats to amphibians. A more acute danger is a fungus in the group called chytrids, summit attendees noted. These skin infections were first reported to kill amphibians only 7 years ago (SN: 7/4/98, p. 7: https://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc98/7_4_98/fob9.htm). Today, Gascon says, survival of “about 200 [amphibian] species appears threatened by this fungus.” The proposed 5-year, $400 million action plan makes research on the disease a priority.
The plan also calls for better mapping of species whose habitats are especially threatened by any risk factor. Such data would enable “rapid-response teams” of biologists to collect amphibians in the path of disease or environmental change. The animals would be kept and bred in captivity until they could be safely released.
