The Silent Demise of a Species
April 9, 2013
Many are hardly bigger than a finger nail. Others, like the Goliath Frog, which is native to Cameroon, weigh more than three kilos. Frogs belong to the amphibian family. There are some 5,000 types of amphibian currently known to man. Most live in tropical rainforests. But amphibians are endangered worldwide. Over 30 percent of all amphibian species are currently classified as “threatened” according to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Their numbers are dwindling faster than any other group of vertebrates.
Scientists have only partly been able to explain why. The reasons include a rapidly-spreading fungal disease, disappearing habitats, climate change and hunting. Herpetologists, as amphibian experts are called, fear the worst.
Tropical ecologists Mark-Oliver Rödel and Mareike Hirschfeld from the Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity in Berlin have been carrying out research in the tropical rainforests of Mount Manengouba in the north west of Cameroon for years now. The scientists are looking for answers to pressing questions. How are the frogs’ habitats changing? Which species are endangered and which ones are already extinct?
The researchers face particularly difficult conditions. It’s the rainy season and the ground is soaked through. Sometimes that means wading knee-deep in mud and running the risk of getting stuck. It’s also hard not to slip and slide on the steep ground. The scientists have to watch where they tread. And keeping dry is impossible.
In all the years that he has spent conducting research here, Mark-Oliver Rödel has only once seen a live Goliath Frog. And the Berlin team isn’t in luck this time either. But when they accompany hunters on an expedition, they witness the catching of a Hairy Frog—a species that can grow up to 20cm in length. In some parts of Africa, the rapidly growing population see frogs as an important source of protein and a cheap means of supplementing their diet. People need to be given alternatives, if the amphibians are to be protected. A regional NGO has come up with one solution. Hunters are given a pig, if they agree to stop hunting frogs. They are also taught why it is important to preserve the biodiversity of their surroundings.
Currently, researchers and environmentalists are working against the clock. We can only hope that they win the battle to save the amphibians from extinction.
There is a UN Conference on biodiversity (COP 11) in Hyderabad, India from October 8 to 19, 2012.
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