These wonderful, super cute creatures have been around for almost 300 million years if not more. We are so used to see them jumping, swimming, walking in the middle of the highway that we take them for granted. We think, sure there are always going to be frogs!! Well, not really! Recent discoveries are shocking: more than a third of all amphibians – most of which are frogs and toads – have already been lost, and more are disappearing every day. It is a global environmental crisis that seems unstoppable. Their problems began with us, of course, habitat loss, pollution and human population that has doubled in the past century contributed to the diminishing numbers. But now, a fungus called chytrid has been identified as the major culprit, and so far the spread of the fungus can’t be stopped. Chytrid continues to move quickly, extinguishing very fast entire frog populations. Lakes and ponds that once thrived with calling frogs are now silent.

We are so busy living in our little worlds overwhelmed by so much over-communication that we don’t pay attention anymore to the rest of living organisms that share this planet with us. They are all important, and the disappearance of a whole class of animals will certainly have an enormous impact on our planet’s ecosystem. Frogs, for instance, sit right in the middle of the food chain, and without them, other creatures will disappear too if they have not already.

In response to these dramatic events, scientists and several wildlife organizations have taken drastic measures to counteract it, such as evacuating frogs from the wild and sheltering them in a sterile environment. The work that is being done is amazing and I encourage everyone that cares and is interested to visit the different sites like Amphibian Ark to learn more about the problem and what is being done to avoid a complete extinction of these very old amazing animals.