As Amphibian Populations Collapse Worldwide, Chytrid Fungus Confirmed In Missouri - Post-Dispatch

[hatrack]

Jeff Briggler was looking for bad news when he swabbed slime off a 2-foot-long hellbender salamander in the Ozarks last year. And he found it. Laboratory technicians analyzed the slime and confirmed what Briggler suspected. Some of the state's hellbenders were infected by a fungus that has wiped out entire frog populations.

As more scientists report dramatic declines in amphibian populations in other parts of the world, area conservationists are looking for similar problems in Missouri and Illinois. Briggler, an amphibian specialist at the Missouri Department of Conservation, noted that endangered hellbender populations in the Ozarks have been shrinking. Lost habitat is one reason; fungus may be another.

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Scientists say there are many reasons for the decline of amphibians: habitat destruction, pollution from pesticides and herbicides, as well as the proliferation of exotic species, such as invasive bullfrogs that devour native frogs in Paris. Still, amphibian populations are crashing in forest reserves, untouched by the aforementioned afflictions. Fingers pointed to an emerging infectious disease caused by the very same fungus, called chytrid (pronounced "kit-rid"), that Briggler found on hellbenders. Scientists confirm that the fungus has led to the demise of amphibian populations in the Americas, the Caribbean and Australia.

Just four months after the fungus reaches a previously uninfected population, it can wipe out half of the amphibian species in an area, Lips said. She surveys frog populations exposed to the chytrid fungus in Panama. When the fungus hit the Sierra Nevada in California, 90 percent of the mountain range's yellow-legged frog population died, she said. Three weeks ago, the World Conservation Union proposed a global plan that would curb amphibian decline. Divided into sections based on the top 11 amphibian plagues, such as climate change and infectious disease, the plan sets guidelines for conservation in different parts of the world. The five-year initiative has a price tag over $400 million.

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http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/CB0A66537F5E3CA48625731D000ED9FA?OpenDocument

[Ganja Ninja]

1. Normally I can't get in or out of my house without a tree frog ...

getting in the way but this year I don't see any.