The frogs are fucked.

October 15, 2004 5:11 AM

The frogs are in trouble. This might sound like good news for more right leaning brethren, but alas, the toads, newts and amphibians in general also look to be facing future problems. Up to a third of all species may face extinction. As ever, humanity looks to be the cause.
posted by biffa (4 comments total)

Any chance we could get a username/password for that first link?
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:08 AM on October 15, 2004

I'm sorry, my location must give me access and I didn't realise it would be restricted as I only linked to the abstract (and indeed it wants me to log in for the full document). The abstract is as follows:

Status and Trends of Amphibian Declines and Extinctions Worldwide
Simon N. Stuart 1*, Janice S. Chanson 1, Neil A. Cox 1, Bruce E. Young 2, Ana S. L. Rodrigues 3, Debra L. Fischman 3, Robert W. Waller 3
1 IUCN-SSC/CI-CABS Biodiversity Assessment Unit, 1919 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA.
2 NatureServe, Apdo. 75-5655, Monteverde, Puntarenas, Costa Rica.
3 Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, 1919 M Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036, USA.

The first global assessment of amphibians provides new context to the well-publicised phenomenon of amphibian declines. Amphibians are more threatened, and are declining more rapidly, than either birds or mammals. Although many declines are due to habitat loss and over-utilization, other, unidentified processes threaten 48% of rapidly declining species, and are driving species most quickly to extinction. Declines are non-random in terms of species' ecological preferences, geographic ranges and taxonomic associations, and are most prevalent among Neotropical montane, stream-associated species. The lack of conservation remedies for these poorly understood declines means that hundreds of amphibian species now face extinction.
posted by biffa at 6:34 AM on October 15, 2004

There was a story about this on yesterday's All Thing's Considered.
posted by zsazsa at 10:12 AM on October 15, 2004

The frogs are especially fucked because their plight - always somewhat low on the human priority list - is drowned now by the din of the political fray, on Metafilter and elsewhere.
posted by troutfishing at 10:50 AM on October 15, 2004