More and more frogs are becoming extinct around the world every day while other frogs are continuously added to the extensive lists of endangered species. One of these species is a tree frog called the La Loma tree frog or Hyloscirtus Colymba. One of the most prominent causes of this is a new disease known as chytridiomycosis, which is rapidly spreading throughout this species of frog. Thankfully, the La Loma tree frog may not become extinct yet because of some as successful scientists in Panama. The Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project (PARCP) recently began breeding this frog despite being tough to care for when raised in captivity. Not a lot of information was known about the care of these frogs so it was difficult to do this but after many attempts, these biologists have succeeded. One biologist that worked with these scientists on the project was Brian Gratwicke from the Smithsonian National Zoo. He used his extensive knowledge of amphibians to work with them to learn about the care of this frog. At the moment there are 28 La Loma frogs residing at the Summit Municipal Park near Panama City along with four tadpoles. These animals are constantly monitored for details of care for future breeding. Breeding is not the only effort being made by the biologists in Panama; they also hope to find a cure to this disease so that they may one day release these frogs into the wild but for now they will keep them protected. These scientists are doing their best to save as many species of frogs as they can and they aim to breed at leas 20 additional frog species in Panama. This will make a small but important dent in the 33% of amphibians in the world that are endangered. The information gained by these scientists will also help to breed and in the end save many other important forest animals from extinction.
You can also check out this cool Prezi about a La Loma tree frog named Phillip.
Here is a video with Brian Gatwicke about his work with amphibian conservation.
Hey Peter!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting article. I had no idea the La Loma tree frog even existed! (and they're super cute!) I really liked your prezi, and I liked how to is supposed to follow one specific tree frog (Philip). Do you know what causes chytridiomycosis?
-Mayze