7 July 2017
By Lou Del Bello
A school-age boy has rediscovered
an Ecuadorian frog considered extinct for at least 30 years. The animal has now
successfully bred in captivity.
The colourful Jambato harlequin
frog (Atelopus ignescens) was once so widespread in Ecuador that it turned up
in people’s homes, was something children played with and was used as an
ingredient in traditional medicine. Then it was suddenly wiped out, probably by
a combination of climate change and fungal disease.
“It was such a long-standing
presence in the Ecuadorian community that we would have never conceived it
could disappear,” says Luis Coloma of the Jambatu Center for Research and
Conservation of Amphibians.
.
But it did. Until now, that is.
In 2016, the centre offered a
$1000 cash prize for anyone able to find the lost frog, not expecting success
but hoping to raise awareness of amphibian conservation.
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