Tuesday, 12 April 2016

RACE TO SAVE HONDURAN FROGS FROM EXTINCTION via Herp Digest

Press Release Seattle, Washington- (4/7/2016)-Honduras Amphibian Rescue & Conservation Center (HARCC),
 An international team of scientists, zookeepers, and artists are racing to save three endangered species of frogs from a disease outbreak in Honduras.  This rescue effort aims to protect the fragile biodiversity of Cusuco National Park in northwestern Honduras, a cloud forest ranked among the worlds’ “top 100 most irreplaceable sites” from an analysis of over 173,000 protected areas.  Now, chytrid fungus, a globally emerging pathogen, threatens to push Cusuco’s amazing frogs to the brink of extinction.

Today, National Geographic announced a national rescue effort has been launched to battle this disease event (National Geographic story here) accompanied by an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to support this massive conservation initiative.  Young frogs in Cusuco are much more likely to die from chytrid infection than their adult counterparts, driving these species into an extinction-prone bottleneck.  In response, a biosecure amphibian rescue facility is now in construction, called the Honduras Amphibian Rescue & Conservation Center (HARCC), where young sick frogs can be nursed back to health, and then reintroduced to the rainforest as stronger adults, able to breed and keep their species alive. 

Jonathan Kolby, Director of HARCC, said, “I’m very optimistic that our rescue project will allow these endangered species to bounce back from the brink of extinction.  If this method proves effective, then it may also assist many other amphibian conservation efforts battling chytrid throughout Latin America.”

Kolby recently rediscovered a frog from this same forest in Honduras that was previously declared extinct due to chytrid (National Geographic story here).  The HARCC team maintains hope that even species highly vulnerable to this disease may have a brighter future if provided with enough rescue support, before it’s too late.  HARCC is now seeking additional funds to support facility construction, and plans to become fully operational by June 2017.


Contact:  Jonathan Kolby (908) 875-6165 info@FrogRescue.com www.FrogRescue.com

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