The Luristan newt is an amphibian jewel, but it’s incredible coloration has made it a target of the international pet trade. As a result, due to the pet trade in addition to habitat degradation, loss, and fragmentation, this little newt has been brought to near extinction. More via iucnredlist.org:
The Luristan Newt, Neurergus kaiseri, is listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM. It is a small species, reaching only 13 cm in length, and is found in the Luristan Province of Iran. It is thought that the striking mosaic of black and white patches on its fiery orange dorsal stripe serve to warn potential predators of its toxicity.
The Luristan Newt is estimated to number fewer than 1,000 mature individuals. It is threatened by habitat loss, recent severe droughts and the damming of the few inhabited streams. The greatest current concern for this species, however, is the growing collection of wild individuals for the international pet trade.
This species is protected by Iranian national legislation, but immediate action is needed to prevent the illegal export of this attractive newt. Captive breeding programmes are being considered as a means of bolstering population numbers.
Certainly, the discovery of a new population of this critically endangered frog species represents some much needed good news from the amphibian world. According to the U.S. Geological Survey:
For the first time in nearly 50 years, a population of a nearly extinct frog has been rediscovered in the San Bernardino National Forest’s San Jacinto Wilderness. Biologists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessing suitability of sites to re-establish frogs and scientists from the San Diego Natural History Museum retracing a 1908 natural history expedition both rediscovered the rare mountain yellow-legged frog in the San Jacinto Wilderness near Idyllwild, Calif.
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Prior to this recent discovery, USGS researchers had estimated there were about 122 adult mountain yellow-legged frogs in the wild.
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“Historically, scientists have had great difficulty breeding frogs in captivity,” said Jeff Lemm, an animal research coordinator for the San Diego Zoo. “We are excited by this success and cautiously optimistic we will have more eggs soon.”
In December 2008, researchers at the Institute for Conservation Research discovered a clutch of about 200 eggs in one of its tanks. Researchers were surprised because the frogs were younger than is typical for breeding. Because of the frogs’ young age, only a handful of the eggs were fertile. The one frog to mature is thriving. The next breeding season is expected to be December 2009 to March 2010.
The goal of the breeding program is to return the mountain yellow-legged frog to its native habitat.
The Zoo’s breeding program, in conjunction with its partners, began after the rare frogs were rescued from a drying creek. Anne Poopatanapong, a wildlife biologist for the San Jacinto Ranger District in the San Bernardino National Forest was monitoring declining creek water levels in Dark Canyon on Aug. 23, 2006, when she noticed many pools drying up, including one where frogs had been living. Concerned about losing the tadpoles, she called the Fish and Wildlife Service and the salvage effort started the next day. A USGS team led by Dr. Robert Fisher rescued 82 tadpoles, which were taken to the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research.
The frog recovery effort has been funded by Caltrans in part to mitigate for emergency work to stabilize a slope near the frog’s habitat on state Route 330 in the San Bernadino Mountains.
“The emergency slope reconstruction project had the dual benefit of opening a road that was about to fail as well as helping to ensure that the last known population of the mountain yellow-legged frog in the San Bernardino Mountains had a program in place to aid the frog’s recovery,” said Craig Wentworth, a senior environmental planner/biologist with Caltrans.
Jim Bartel, the field supervisor for the Fish and Wildlife Service office in Carlsbad, said his agency is pleased to participate in the effort to rescue the mountain yellow-legged frog and conserve its remaining riparian habitat.
“We look forward to reintroducing the species to its native habitat,” Bartel said.
Habitat protection and restoration, combined with efforts to reintroduce these frogs to areas where they have been decimated, offers the best hope of returning mountain yellow-legged frogs in Southern California to a healthy, self-sustaining population.
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The YouTube clip above is from Life in Cold Blood, and it is narrated by Sir David Attenborough. The clip shows the Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) in a remote area of the Panamanian rainforest during breeding season. The population of Panamanian golden frog were annihilated by chytridiomycosis or amphibian chytrid fungus disease, which is caused by the chytrid fungus. The fungus, a killer of amphibians, forced conservationists to remove the remaining known Panamanian golden frogs from the rainforest into captivity. No doubt, humans unknowingly carried the spores of the fungus to remote areas around the world, but the sudden volatility of the fungus may be linked to other humanly induced factors such as climate change and/or pollution from pesticides (UPDATE, 21 Nov. 08: a strong link between global warming and declining amphibians not likely a study says, but other anthropogenic factors certainly exist). From the BBC:
The film crew was disinfected – to stop them from carrying the disease – and managed to capture unique footage of the frogs in the wild.
Just after filming was completed in June 2006, the location was overtaken by the chytrid fungus.
Scientists were forced to remove the remaining frogs from the wild and keep them in captivity.
Hilary Jeffkins added: “The whole species is now extinct in Panama – this was one of the last remaining populations. Its final wave was in our programme.”
How does Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis kill amphibians? From The Australian:
Fungal spores attach to the amphibian’s skin, thickening it and reducing the animal’s capacity to drink and respire. The fungus also damages the nervous system.
Some amazing frog species have become extinct in very recent times. Again from The Australian:
The so-called platypus frog was one of a kind. The only species of land vertebrate animal – amphibian, reptile, mammal or bird – to rear its young inside its stomach….Zoologist and environmental consultant Glen Ingram was studying them in 1977 in the Conondale Range, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. “There were plenty of frogs in the streams at that time,” Ingram recalls now. A year later, he could find just two. In 1979, there were none, and none have been found since, anywhere, despite exhaustive searches. “Like the Tasmanian tiger, it is one of the great wildlife tragedies that this astonishing animal is extinct,” Ingram says.
Also known as the gastric-brooding frog, Rheobatrachus was first discovered in 1972. A year later, its breeding biology was unearthed when a wildlife enthusiast watched enthralled as a female in an aquarium spewed fully developed baby frogs from her mouth. This was so bizarre – gastric juices would normally destroy young animals in a stomach – that scientists initially refused to believe it.
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