[yeahbut]

Well it was pretty bizarre news to me anyway. Maybe everyone else is up to speed already on the 'Grandma needed to know if she was knocked up and now there ain't gonna be no frogs' theory...

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'E')dinburgh, April 22 : Biologists have warned that the entire population of the world’s frogs and other amphibians could be wiped out like the dinosaurs by a deadly fungus within three decades.

According to a report in the Scotsman, a strain of the chytrid virus that kills frogs, toads, newts and other amphibians could spell the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs.

The chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, infects all kinds of amphibians and causes the fatal disease chytridiomycosis.

Scientists first noticed the alarming number of amphibians under threat about 15 years ago. But it was not until the late 1990s that it was discovered the chytrid fungus was to blame.

It is believed the deadly fungus originated in South Africa, and spores were then spread by the commercial trade in African clawed frogs, which were used as an early pregnancy test.

Some notorious pest species, including the cane toad, American bullfrog and African clawed frog, have resistance and have been spreading it throughout the world.

“Frogs, toads, newts, salamanders and caecilians, which are limbless, almost eel-like amphibians, are all under threat,” said Iain Stephen of London Zoo. “The disease is very rapid. You can have a total die-off within weeks of its arrival,” he added.

According to Stephen, there are 6,000 species of amphibians in the world and over two-thirds of them are in decline, which is a higher percentage than any other animal group.

“It’s the biggest decline taking place on the planet. Over the next 20 or 30 years, we could be talking about the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs,” he said.

In the past few years, more than 100 species of frogs have become extinct.

[Mominator]

I hadn't heard of it being done with frogs! That is interesting. They used to commonly use rabbits the same way. (that's where the phrase "the rabbit died" meaning "she's pregnant" came from--only that wasn't quite right because the rabbit was killed every time)

Thanks for posting this.

[yeahbut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Mominator', 'I') hadn't heard of it being done with frogs! That is interesting. They used to commonly use rabbits the same way. (that's where the phrase "the rabbit died" meaning "she's pregnant" came from--only that wasn't quite right because the rabbit was killed every time)

Thanks for posting this.