Leap Day Is for the Frogs

Panamanian golden frog

Photo: Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society/Wildlife Conservation Society

related articles

There are all kinds of ways to mark leap day, a mathematical curiosity that has no inherent meaning beyond righting the hours we've lost each of the preceding three years.

But wildlife conservationists around the world are giving it new meaning this year, the Year of the Frog.

By calling attention to the plight of frogs and other amphibians, the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums and other groups hope to reverse declines, understand the problems facing the world's amphibians and develop a cohesive strategy for restoring populations.

The task is huge. Since 1980, 120 species of frogs, toads, salamanders and other amphibians have gone extinct. That's more than four per year. At that pace, another would have gone extinct already in 2008, which isn't hard to imagine, given that as many as half of the remaining 6,000 species are endangered.

Part of the effort is Amphibian Ark, a sort-of "Doomsday" vault for species, akin to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault that opened this week in Norway as a place to preserve the world's food crops. Zoos will maintain populations of amphibians that, with luck and hard work, can later be released in the wild to replenish depleted populations.

The frogs and toads pictured here, courtesy of Julie Larsen Maher of the Wildlife Conservation Society, are on display at the Bronx Zoo, which, like other zoos, is focusing on frogs and other amphibians all year, but is hosting special programs this weekend in recognition of leap day.

Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society
The Kihansi spray toad was once found only in an isolated river gorge in Tanzania. Though the species is believed extinct in the wild, WCS has been able to breed hundreds of these diminutive frogs in the hope they can one day be reintroduced into a restored ecosystem. Later this year, scientists from Tanzania's University of Dar es Salaam will visit the Bronx Zoo to learn how to breed toads in their homeland.

Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society
Endangered Wyoming toads propagated at WCS's Central Park Zoo have already been successfully released back into the wild.

COMMENTS ()