Matt Ellerbeck, as posted on
The Vegan Vine
July 2018
Myriad frogs are being lost each year through the combination of human-caused pollution, development, exploitation, abuse, and climate change. Their unnatural decline cannot rebound on its own, which is why the protection of frogs, like so many other animals, is necessary.
Matt Ellerbeck is a frog advocate and conservationist.
Frogs are in terrible trouble. Around 30 percent of all the world's frog
species are threatened with extinction! Many human-induced hazards are
killing frogs and contributing to their decline.
Habitat destruction is largely responsible for the loss of frogs. Areas that
were once suitable for these nonhumans to live have now been destroyed. The
areas that still remain are often polluted with hazardous substances like
chemicals, oils, gasoline, and pesticides.
Habitats are often isolated and cut off from one another by roads and
highways that now slice through them. Countless frogs are killed on roads
and highways every year when they are hit by vehicles.
A 2006 study from Carleton University in Ottawa found heavy traffic to be a
larger threat to frogs than habitat loss.
Sadly, many frogs who are migrating to mating and egg-laying sites must
cross over roads to reach such areas where many of the maturer individuals
are killed. This greatly limits their reproductivity and makes it incredibly
hard for various frog species to rebound.
Being struck and killed by vehicles is not the only threat that roads create
for frogs. Chemical run-off from vehicles contaminate roadside ditches and
pools. These sites are often utilized by frogs for mating and birthing.
Climate change is among the most serious threats that frogs face. Increased
temperatures, changing humidity levels, desertification, and droughts wreak
havoc on frogs as they do other animals. Frogs are generally adapted to
moist and cooler habitats and may require very specific conditions to
thrive, therefore, changes to these conditions can be life threatening.
Since frogs can live in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats, shifts in
these environments results in dying frogs and dwindling frog species.
Changes in climate can also effect the forming and availability of critical
habitat features such as vernal pools (utilized as mating and
birthing/egg-laying sites). Certain frog species have small natural ranges
and within these ranges show fidelity to over-wintering sites. Thus, they
have limited opportunities for movement if their habitats are degraded.
Climate change is often cited as one of the reasons why frogs are
disappearing from otherwise pristine and protected habitats.
Disease is another issue plaguing frogs. Chytridiomycosis is an often fatal
infectious skin disease that seriously affects frogs. The condition is
caused by the chytrid fungus—Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or Bd. It has
been devastatingly deadly to frogs. Bd has been found on all of the
continents where frogs reside and may be responsible for the greatest
disease-caused loss of life and biodiversity in recorded history (Skerratt
et al. 2007).
Chytridiomycosis has been linked to many frog deaths and extinctions of
frog species in western North America, Central America, South America,
eastern Australia, East Africa, and in parts of the Caribbean. The fungus is
capable of causing sporadic deaths in some and 100 percent mortality in
others. Sadly, no effective measure is known to control the disease in
natural environments. Ranavirus is another affliction affecting frogs. The
pathogen causes severe bleeding of their internal organs.
Numerous frogs are also seized from their homes by humans who exploit them
as bait for fish, for the lucrative pet trade, for use in vivisection, and
as a delicacy food. These misuses account for millions and millions of frogs
who are captured and killed annually! David Bickford from the National
University of Singapore estimates that between 180 million to over a billion
frogs are killed each year just so humans can eat them.
The aforementioned diseases affecting amphibians are also being spread
throughout various groups and to other previously healthy animals via these
unethical trades and uses. When sick nonhuman animals are abducted from
their natural habitats and then shipped and sold in other locations they
bring their diseases with them.
Myriad frogs are being lost each year through the combination of
human-caused pollution, development, exploitation, abuse, and climate
change. Their unnatural decline cannot rebound on its own, which is why the
protection of frogs, like so many other animals, is necessary. Without
rights and assistance, many simply will not survive the onslaught we have
brought to bear on them.
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