Frogs of Central America

I was looking up the Golden Frog because I read an article about how they wave to communicate.  Their beautiful pure gold color has given them legendary powers for good luck and made them sought after for poachers.  Needless to say, they're quite rare.

After searching the web for a little bit, I found out that they are most likely extinct in the wild.  So sad.  I thought I'd post 1) the video of the frog waving--brought to you by the amazing Sir David Attenborough, and 2) the video of the incredible, dedicated, and brilliant scientists trying to save the frogs of Central America.  

I typically think of frogs as twitchy and manic and am in awe after the video shows Golden Frogs so poised in their movements and interactions.  They really are beautiful.

But sadly, the Chytrid Fungus has spread throughout Central America and is threatening to spread further into North America, killing out mass amounts of amphibians.  It's thought to have affected 30% of amphibians world-wide.  Efforts to pass laws making the sale of frogs illegal has been halted by cultural groups that eat frogs as part of their historic diet.  Yet, in an article by the New York Times, out of 493 frogs from San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, 62% were infected with Chytrid.  Some of these frogs are eaten (an average of 2,280 metric tons of frog legs are brought into this country every year), some are kept as pets, but either way, the fungus has been spreading for the past 15 years and is not slowing any time soon.


Here's the video on scientists helping to save frogs in Central America. 

I need to write a blog about balancing cultural sensitivity with environmental protection…it's an obnoxiously reoccurring theme in so many topics I read about.

I'll get on that…