WIKIMEDIA, TNARG 12345In the last 2 decades, field biologists discovered nearly 3,000 new species of amphibians. At the end of July 2012, the total number of amphibian species hit 7,000 with the addition of a high elevation glassfrog (Centrolene sabini) from Manu National Park in Amazonian Peru. At the same time, however, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has identified amphibians as the major taxon at the greatest risk of extinction, with 41 percent of amphibian species at risk as of June 2012, and anywhere from 125 to 500 species already extinct.
The suspicion that amphibians were declining in numbers, and that some species were beginning to disappear, first surfaced at the inaugural World Congress of Herpetology in Canterbury, United Kingdom, in the fall of 1989. The following spring, I helped organize a workshop, sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences and held in Irvine, California, to investigate this issue. Reports from that meeting led to controversy as to whether populations were at the bottom of a natural cycle or were in a downward spiral, fueling further studies. By 1996 sufficient data had accumulated that the phenomenon of amphibian declines and disappearances was an empirical fact.
Among the leading factors are habitat destruction and modification as a result of human population growth, agricultural development, deforestation, and urbanization. ...
