With most people in the country now working from home or practicing social distancing in an effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus, pandemics are receiving a lot more attention than usual. But in the amphibian conservation world, pandemics have been at the forefront of discussion for many years.
That’s because amphibians are currently threatened by a fungal pathogen called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (or “Bd” for short). In frogs, Bd can cause the disease chytridiomycosis (“chytrid” for short). It’s a skin disease, which is particularly problematic for amphibians, which can breathe, osmoregulate, and thermoregulate through their skin. Bd has infected hundreds of amphibian species around the world and has contributed to the global amphibian extinction crisis, in which thousands of amphibian species are on the decline.
Mountain yellow-legged frogs are our local representative of this extinction crisis.
A different global pandemic
That’s because amphibians are currently threatened by a fungal pathogen called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (or “Bd” for short). In frogs, Bd can cause the disease chytridiomycosis (“chytrid” for short). It’s a skin disease, which is particularly problematic for amphibians, which can breathe, osmoregulate, and thermoregulate through their skin. Bd has infected hundreds of amphibian species around the world and has contributed to the global amphibian extinction crisis, in which thousands of amphibian species are on the decline.
Mountain yellow-legged frogs are our local representative of this extinction crisis.
A different global pandemic