Amphibians threatened worldwide - The Science Show - ABC News

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Amphibians play a crucial role in ecosystems. Their tadpoles are food for other species. They recycle nutrients. And they are food more a great range of predators. But our understanding of many amphibians is poor. Many have not been studied and classified officially. Pamela Gonzalez del Pliego has looked at 2,200 of these data deficient amphibians and come up with worrying conclusions. More than 1,000 data-deficient amphibians are threatened with extinction. Almost 500 species are endangered or critically endangered. The threats are rising temperatures, the clearing of natural habitat, fire and pollution. When species live on mountain tops, there is nowhere for them to go as temperatures rise. They become extinct. In the tropical Andes, 75% of the original forest has been cleared for agriculture. And amphibians don’t cope well with fire.  Pamela Gonzalez del Pliego say we need to know more about what amphibians we have and change our approach to the land to make habitat conservation a priority.

Female and male frogs mating in Tropical Colombia Image: Female and male frogs mating in Tropical Colombia. The male is using its special thumb to grip the female, which is larger than he is (Pamela Gonzalez del Pliego)
A data deficient frog from Borneo Image: A data deficient frog from Borneo (Rob Freckleton)


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