Amphibians at risk from booming global wildlife trade, climate change, habitat loss, pollution, and disease

By Laurel Neme, special to www.mongabay.com
September 08, 2010

Alejandra Goyenechea, International Counsel at Defenders of Wildlife and Chair of the Species Survival Network’s (SSN) Amphibian Working Group, spoke with Laurel Neme on her ‘The WildLife’ radio show and podcast about the global amphibian trade. In her interview, Alejandra Goyenechea discusses the benefits of frogs and the many threats – such as habitat loss, climate change, pollution, invasive species, disease, and overexploitation – to their survival. … Laurel Neme: What are the threats to amphibians? Alejandra Goyenechea:  Unfortunately, there are a lot of them, and they’re caused by us, most of them. The first one we can say is habitat loss. You also have pollution: chemicals that we throw in our gardens, chemicals from the industry, pollution from cities, from crops. [There’s also] climate change, [and] of course, invasive species. A lot of people don’t think of this, but … would like to introduce trout or another type of fish in a pond. [They] decide, “Let’s grow this fish in this pond so we can have some fishing and have some fun in here!” Well, sometimes, those new species that are introduced in lake, ponds, whatever, they are invasive. They eat the eggs of the amphibians, and they are not used to that. Another threat for amphibians is disease. That’s another big topic that I can talk about, but in summary, one of the biggest diseases that amphibians face now is a fungus that is going through them and killing them. …

Frogs and friends at risk from booming global wildlife trade