Amphibians Falling Faster and Further
Alarming Trends Signal Extinction for Frogs
by William Stolzenburg

What experts have long feared is now confirmed in the most comprehensive survey on the world’s amphibians. One in three species of frogs, toads and salamanders are in danger of going extinct, with hundreds of species likely to be gone within the decade. And they are dying in places considered pristine, in ways that bode poorly for life itself.

Of the 5,743 known species of amphibians, 1,856 are now threatened with extinction, according to a survey of 500 experts. As many as 122 may have disappeared since 1980.

High on the list of threats are the usual culprits of habitat destruction and hunting. More insidiously, disease and global warming have emerged as stealth killers of the amphibians. “Since most amphibians depend on fresh water and feel the effects of pollution before many other forms of life, including humans, their rapid decline tells us that one of Earth’s most critical life-support systems is breaking down,” says Simon Stuart, leader of the amphibian study, which appeared last fall in the journal Science.

The boreal toad is one of scores of troubled amphibians. The toad breeds in ponds in the western United States—or used to. It has vanished from the vast majority of its haunts, its disappearance attributed to lethal combinations of disease and environmental toxins. Its ailments further compounded by the stress of global warming, the boreal toad defies conventional conservation.

“There probably isn’t much we can do directly,” says Chris Pague, a Conservancy scientist in Colorado. On the other hand, he adds, the toad is another good reason for us “to engage on the bigger issues such as climate change, with the goal of changing the way people feel and act about the conservation of life on Earth.”

for more information

Status and Trends of Amphibian Declines and Extinctions Worldwide
Science, Vol 306, Issue 5702, 1783-1786, 3 December 2004
The first global assessment of amphibians provides new context for the well-publicized phenomenon of amphibian declines.

The Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA)
This web site presents results of the global amphibian assessment, including listing threatened species, range map, ecology information and other data for every amphibian species.