The Year of the Frog
Already we are 8 months into the year, and I just found out that this is the Year of the Frog! No, I am not talking about Chinese New Year, but rather a year long campaign to help save the frog. Frogs are disappearing at alarming rates, but you probably haven’t heard much about it. The Year of the Frog campaign is designed to help raise awareness and funds to stop the crisis.
From Africa to the Americas, frogs and other amphibians are vanishing from the planet at an alarming rate. Not since the dinosaurs has the world seen such a rapid extinction. In the past few decades, as many as 130 species of frogs and other amphibians may have been wiped out. Right now, one-third to one-half of the world’s amphibian species are threatened. Climate change, pollution and a silent killer — chytrid fungus — are the main suspects in the mass disappearance. Chytrid fungus is currently unstoppable and untreatable in the wild. The World Conservation Union calls it the worst infectious disease ever recorded among vertebrates.
Amphibian Ark is doing a lot of great work in efforts to save frogs and other amphibians from extinction. As a frog lover, I am alarmed at the news, and saddened by the thought of frogs becoming extinct. If you want to learn more about what is going on, and also how you can become involved in the problem solving process, please visit the Amphibian Ark website.
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I live in Cleveland and our Metroparks Zoo here is having the Year of the Frog campaign too. I bet they are piggybacking on this bigger campaign.
Interesting…