Thu Jan 3, 2013, 06:45 PM

The Frogs are Dying

The Frogs are Dying

by Steven D
Thu Jan 3rd, 2013 at 05:12:06 PM EST

Fair warning. This will be a bit of a rant. But first, some news (or at least news to some). The frogs are dying all over the world.

In moist, mossy rooms, rows of glass aquariums bathed in eerie light shelter the last of the last of the frogs. It is a secure facility, for here reside the sole survivors of their species, rescued from the wild before a modern plague swept through their forests and streams in a ferocious doomsday event that threatens the planet’s amphibians with extinction.

In what may be the greatest disease-driven loss of biodiversity in recorded history, hundreds of frog species around the world are facing extinction.

The villain is a rather extraordinary fungus, an amphibian version of a case of athlete’s foot from hell, with an impossible name, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis , which scientists call “Bd,” a virulent, lethal fungus that has spread around the globe.

Frogs in both of the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean and Australia are dying. Particularly hard hit are species in Central America. This loss of biodiversity is an ecological disaster caused by many factors, but likely the environmental impacts of globalization, pollution and even climate change have played a role in the spread of this killer fungus. If you think the loss of frogs and other amphibians are not important to you watch this video:

video/more @ link~

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/1/3/17126/41587

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9 replies	Author	Time	Post
The Frogs are Dying (Original post)	babylonsister	Jan 2013	OP
The web of life	JEB	Jan 2013	#1
When will we	Delphinus	Jan 2013	#9
no frogs = more bugs. more bugs = more disease	NMDemDist2	Jan 2013	#2
Bi-valves (clams) disappeared years ago.	Festivito	Jan 2013	#3
babylonsister there may be another cause -- JD!	jody	Jan 2013	#4
What the HELL are you doin' drinking Jack Daniels in the a.m.?	babylonsister	Jan 2013	#5
We have NO IDEA which single link could break	Speck Tater	Jan 2013	#6
Frogs have been in trouble for a while.	bvar22	Jan 2013	#7
You've hit the nail on the head	AikidoSoul	Jan 2013	#8

Response to babylonsister (Original post)

Thu Jan 3, 2013, 06:49 PM

JEB (612 posts)

1. The web of life

is such that the injury of one injures the whole. Thanks for posting.

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Response to JEB (Reply #1)

Thu Jan 3, 2013, 09:48 PM

Delphinus (6,279 posts)

9. When will we

ever learn?

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Response to babylonsister (Original post)

Thu Jan 3, 2013, 07:10 PM

NMDemDist2 (48,854 posts)

2. no frogs = more bugs. more bugs = more disease

damn

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Response to babylonsister (Original post)

Thu Jan 3, 2013, 07:11 PM

Festivito (12,284 posts)

3. Bi-valves (clams) disappeared years ago.

Things are not looking good.

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Response to babylonsister (Original post)

Thu Jan 3, 2013, 07:46 PM

jody (26,624 posts)

4. babylonsister there may be another cause -- JD!

I went fishing one morning but after a short time I ran out of worms.

Then I saw a cottonmouth with a frog in his mouth.

Frogs are good bass bait.

Knowing the snake couldn't bite me with the frog in his mouth I grabbed him right behind the head, took the frog, and put it in my bait bucket.

Now the dilemma was how to release the snake without getting bit.

So, I grabbed my bottle of Jack Daniels and poured a little whiskey in its mouth. His eyes rolled back, he went limp.

I released him into the lake without incident and carried on fishing using the frog.

A little later, I felt a nudge on my foot. It was that damn snake…with two more frogs.

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Response to jody (Reply #4)

Thu Jan 3, 2013, 07:51 PM

babylonsister (144,180 posts)

5. What the HELL are you doin' drinking Jack Daniels in the a.m.?

The snake extinction is next!

And it's not really funny, but I refuse to not laugh!

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Response to babylonsister (Original post)

Thu Jan 3, 2013, 08:39 PM

Speck Tater (10,618 posts)

6. We have NO IDEA which single link could break

and lead to our own extinction.

Bees? Maybe other insects could pick up the slack as pollinators. Maybe not.
Krill in the ocean? How far up the food chain would the decimation extend? Nobody knows.
Frogs and salamanders? Who cares? Or maybe they are a vital link in a chain that supports US.

We just can't let this crap continue. We are conducting a planet-scale experiment, and if the experiment fails, we all die.

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Response to babylonsister (Original post)

Thu Jan 3, 2013, 08:51 PM

bvar22 (29,559 posts)

7. Frogs have been in trouble for a while.

They are very susceptible to degraded environmental conditions and pollutants.
They are one of the Coal Mine Canaries (Environmental Sentinels) for Environmental Threats.

"Frogs have a body surrounded by a skin with some unusual properties. It holds the tissues and fluids in just like our skin but it is also porous, allowing both air and water to pass directly into their body without being filtered through the stomach. This makes frogs susceptible to any and all pollutants in the environment. Frogs are remarkable creatures, but there is a limit to the conditions they can adapt to.

Most frogs live both in water and on land at different stage of their lives, as tadpoles and as adults, so they’re affected by problems in both types of habitat. Since they take in water directly through their delicate skin, they’re very sensitive to water quality. Because of this sensitivity amphibians are considered a "canary in the coal mine'' for environmental damage."

http://www.saczoo.org/page.aspx?pid=408

Other Environmental "Coal Mine Canaries":
*Honey Bees

*EarthWorms

*ButterFlies

*Humming Birds

*Lightening Bugs

If you are living in an area with rapid population declines in the above,
it is time to think about moving,
but even that is a temporary solution.

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Response to bvar22 (Reply #7)

Thu Jan 3, 2013, 09:25 PM

AikidoSoul (1,479 posts)

8. You've hit the nail on the head

We've lived in N. Florida since 1994 on 21 acres of land on a pond and have seen a huge decline in toads and frogs. Starting about ten years ago the air would become very toxic when the temperature reached dew-point. We would become disoriented, dizzy and have other neurological symptoms. As the moisture came lower it would take the toxicants down with it and concentrate. If we get sick when that happens, one can imagine how tiny frogs with permeable skin would suffer.

Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides...all have increased dramatically over the past decade. We are slowly committing suicide.

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Environment & Energy (Group)