The article doesn’t quite get it right early on, but within a paragraph or so, they state the serious threat of a fungus, amphibian chytrid, which has become the target cause of ‘massive frog die-offs and species extinctions’ over the past 15 years. See the article below to get more information on the fungus.
This is an amphibian emergency, and many in the research world know it. As great numbers of species die off, this provides a much more limited selection of genes from which the population can draw, and this further weakens their chances for survival. Speculation is strong that global warming may be contributing to these huge die-offs. This, of course, makes sense, since warming, coupled with massive habitat loss would be huge stress factors to add to amphibians already under attack from the fungus.
Tags: "amphibian chytrid fungus", amphibians, conservation, extinction, frogs
