November 2013: A deadly amphibian disease chytridiomycosis has caused the extinction of Darwin’s frogs, believe scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB), Chile.
Although habitat disturbance is recognised as the main threat to the two existing species of Darwin's frogs (the northern Rhinoderma rufum endemic to Chile, and the southern Rhinoderma darwinii from Chile and Argentina), this cannot account for the plummeting population and disappearance from most of their habitat. Conservation scientists found evidence this disease caused mortality in wild Darwin’s frogs and linked this with both the population decline of the southern Darwin’s frog, including from undisturbed ecosystems and the presumable extinction of the Northern Darwin’s frog.
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