An emergency rescue mission in Chile has successfully facilitated the birth of endangered Darwin's froglets at the London Zoo after drastic population declines from chytrid fungus. Following a concerning 90% population decline in the frogs due to the disease, a team from the Zoological Society of London gathered 55 frogs for protective breeding. Darwin's frogs possess a unique reproductive cycle with males brooding tadpoles in their vocal sacs. The chytrid fungus, recognized as a leading threat to amphibians worldwide, poses a dire risk to their survival.
Dr. Andres Valenzuela-Sanchez highlighted the urgency, stating, ‘We rapidly decided we needed to do something; we needed to do an emergency rescue’ due to the chytrid fungus threat.
Chytrid fungus has catastrophic effects on amphibians, having killed off at least 90 species, demonstrating its devastating impact on populations like Darwin's frogs.
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