Page 16 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #06

WILD NEWS

RIES
DISCOVER

Written by
STUART
dom.
The latest in scientific research from all over the animal king d BLACKMAN
The harlequin frog
population of Costa
Rica was devastated
by chytridiomycosis.

Q AMPHIBIANS
FROGS ARE BOUNCING BACK

CENTRAL AMERICA’S AMPHIBIANS ARE EVOLVING RESISTANCE TO A DEVASTATING FUNGAL INFECTION

It’s not clear yet whether the
J ust a decade after the that the fungus had DID YOU KNOW? about what was frogs’ response is a sign of a
happening were
evolved into a less
fungal skin disease
Q At least one
totally wrong.”
virulent form. This
global recovery. “We hope so,”
Jchytridiomycosis swept
through amphibian populations is a common pattern species of Instead, it seems says Voyles. “We were only able
Panamanian frog
in Central America, there are in disease epidemics has been driven to be the frogs that to focus on one aspect of frog
signs that the region’s frogs are – parasites are better to extinction by are evolving. Voyles’s defences but we expect they’re
chytridiomycosis.The
evolving resistance to it. off keeping their team compared the using lots of different ways to
last Rabb’s fringe-
Discovered in the 1990s, hosts alive if they limbed treefrog died susceptibility to fight back.
chytridiomycosis, which are to prosper. But in captivity in 2016. the disease of two “We know that the pathogen
is caused by the fungus experiments showed populations of clown is still lethal so there may be
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis that the fungus is no less lethal frogs – one from a region some species out there in need
Michae & Patricia Fogden/Minden/FLPA the world. But a new study in this is not the case. was established before the amphibians are facing many
to populations with no history
(Bd), has wreaked havoc with
of conservation intervention,”
where the fungus is endemic
she adds. “We also know that
and a captive population that
of exposure, suggesting that
amphibian populations around
Panama suggests that many
threats, so protecting their
“I was very surprised,” says
epidemic hit. This proved
habitats is critical.”
species devastated by the
that the frogs have developed
Jamie Voyles of the University
disease – nine of 12 species
of Nevada. “But the more tests
resistance to the disease,
surveyed – have recovered.
we did, the more I became
probably via anti-microbial
K
LINK https://bit.ly/2vOFyeO
BBC Wildlife
16 The biologists assumed convinced that my initial ideas skin secretions. SOURCE Science June 2018