Lizards, rodents, frog added to endangered list

GENEVA – A rare tree frog found only in central Panama could soon croak its last, as deforestation and infection push the species toward extinction, an environmental group said Tuesday.

Switzerland-based IUCN surveyed a total of 47,677 animals and plants for this year's "Red List" of endangered species and determined that 17,291 of them are threatened with extinction.

"The only mammal to be added to the list this year is the Eastern Voalavo, a rodent that lives in the mountainous forests of Madagascar. IUCN classified it as "endangered" — two steps from extinction in the wild — because its habitat is being destroyed by slash-and-burn farming.

The Red List already includes species such as the tiger, of which only 3,200 are thought to exist in the wild and whose habitat in Asia is steadily shrinking due to encroachment by humans. The group added almost 300 reptiles this year, including the Panay monitor lizard and the sail-fin water lizard, both of which are hunted for food and threatened by logging in their native Philippines.

Some species have recovered thanks to conservation efforts, IUCN said. The Australian grayling, a freshwater fish, has graduated from "vulnerable" to "near threatened" thanks to fish ladders at dams and other protection measures, the group said.

But for many others conservation efforts are likely to come too late.

The Kihansi spray toad of southern Tanzania is now thought to be extinct in the wild. A dam upstream of the Kihansi Falls has dried up the gorge where it lived, and an aggressive fungal disease known as chytridiomycosis appears to have pushed the toad population over the edge, IUCN said.

The same fate could soon befall the unusually large Rabb's fringe-limbed tree frog, which glides through the forest using its big webbed feet to steer safely to the ground. It is the only known frog species where the tadpoles feed off skin shed by the male while he guards the young.

The chytrid fungus that causes chytridiomycosis reached central Panama in 2006, a year after scientists first discovered the tree frog. Since then the fungus — believed to be spread by international trade and global warming — has virtually wiped out the wild frog population.

"Only a single male has been heard calling since," IUCN said.

After reading this article, one thing is clear. We the humans str the main cause for their disappearance or the species to be on the endangered list, either directly or indirectly..

How sad it is!

sriniketan

Indeed a very sad news to all ecology biomes.
All these Amphibious creatures belong to rain forests.Becose of deforestation for firewood and other econmical factors their habitat have been disturbed which in turn affected their generation productivity.So their fate is to live in SINGLE. Its the nature of humans to peep into other's business stirring the flavour of the fauna, nevertheless minding the adverse consequences.
we are the uprooters:Have to face the cores.
Before they extinct let us have a look onto them:
Australian Grayling


Kihansi spray toad



Rabb's fringe-limbed tree frog