The frogs had already started to die by the time the conservation team from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs arrived in Panama in November on a mission to rescue amphibians endangered by a deadly fungus.
The scientists were part of the first expedition of the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project (PARC), an international science rescue mission that traveled six hours on pack horses from Panama City, up steep mountainous slopes to a base camp at the Cerro Brewster rain forest in the Chagres National Park.
If there is no progress in the battle against chytrid, a deadly fungus that has already wiped out nearly 100 frog species, as many as half of the world’s amphibian species could become extinct, the largest mass extinction since the death of the dinosaurs, scientists say.
PARC’s goal was to collect living specimens of frogs not yet affected by the fungus for captive breeding. They gathered about 20 harlequin frogs and 20 tree frogs.
Until then, scientists believed that the fatal fungus, quickly moving south through Central America, would be slowed by the barrier of the Panama Canal for as much as five years.
But lab results soon showed that the disease had already jumped the canal, which sent the scientists back into the cloud forest this month for a second rescue mission.
Chytrid, which attacks the skin of amphibians, kills within “weeks, not months or years,” said Cheyenne Mountain Zoo spokesman Sean Anglum. “That’s why it was imperative to turn around and get a second expedition there.”
Amphibians, such as toads and frogs, use their skin for respiration, hydration and electrolyte balance. Scientists believe that electrolyte imbalance causes cardiac arrest in frogs.
When the conservation team returned to the collection site, they discovered the fungus has moved quickly. “They (saw) numerous frogs dead in the wild,” Anglum said.
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo became involved in the Panama project in part because of its work with domestic endangered amphibians. The zoo houses a breeding population of Wyoming toads, which in 1994 were extinct in the wild. But they were rescued by zoos including Cheyenne Mountain — which bred more than 1,000 tadpoles and released them to the wild in their former habitat at Lindzey Ranch near Centennial, Wyo.
So in 2008, when the Association of Zoos and Aquariums asked its members to help fight the global battle against chytrid, zoo president Bob Chastain immediately assumed a leadership role, signing the zoo up as a founding member of PARC, which has eight partner organizations, including the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.
Now the Cheyenne Mountain conservation team is organizing rapidly to rescue more Panamanian frogs.
“We’re looking for qualified volunteers to stay at Summit Municipal Park and do husbandry, do the baths, and the cleaning of the containers each day,” Anglum said.
Volunteers, who must be trained in animal husbandry and have experience in field conservation work, will perform rescue efforts that include anti-fungal baths for the frogs daily for 10 days.
“With 200 to 400 frogs, that’s quite an undertaking,” said Anglum. “Next year we may need to expand out, and need a good army of volunteers to go down to help.”
Meantime, members of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo team will soon return from the rain forests of Panama, and have been keeping in touch via the “Frog Blog” on the zoo’s website, and adjusting to a strange new reality.
Anglum said Chastain told him “it was pretty eerie to go to a section of the jungle and not hear frogs at night.
“That silence is unnerving,” Anglum said. “You should be hearing songs of frogs and amphibians all through the night.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or email@example.com
Zoo offers frog blog
Want to follow along on the frog-rescue mission? cheyennemountainzoo frogblog.blogspot.com