My colleagues and I have just had a paper published in Nature, based on our efforts to assess almost all amphibian species for the IUCN Red Lists. The major takeaway messages:
It is a bad time to be an amphibian
Two fifths of all amphibians are threatened with extinction.
Salamanders are the most threatened group; three fifths of all salamanders are threatened with extinction!
Climate change is a major driver of amphibian declines globally
Habitat loss, especially due to agriculture, is a problem for the vast majority of amphibians
Chytrid pandemics have caused and continue to cause catastrophic declines of both salamanders and frogs
Protected areas and careful management are working as strategies! They are actively improving the outlook of some species
As many as 222 amphibian species may have gone extinct in recent times; of those, 185 are suspected extinct but not yet confirmed.
Our paper is Open Access, you can read it here!
Photo of Atelopus hoogmoedi by Jaime Culebras, used with permission
Plates XIII. IX, and X from Our reptiles and batrachians; a plain and easy account of the lizards, snakes, newts, toads, frogs and tortoises indigenous to Great Britain by M. C. Cooke (1825-1914)
London, 1893
Biodiversity Heritage Library
I had some important decisions to make the past weeks, one of them is that I want to learn more about amphibians specifically because I love them so much and know so little.
As a token of that, please enjoy some toads (with so many eggs! So much spawn!) and newts! Bufo bufo and Lissotriton vulgaris, I believe. I found them in a vernal pool among some fossilized sea floor (See my other posts for more pictures of that)! There were so many amphibians there, I have not seen that many in one place in ages. It is in a nature reserve :)