Help Save the Frogs!

Frogs watched the dinosaurs come and go, but today almost half of them are themselves threatened with extinction. Addressing the amphibian extinction crisis represents the greatest species conservation challenge in the history of humanity. Amphibians have been likened to canaries in the coal mine: just as miners used sensitive canaries to warn them of toxic gases in the mines, amphibians might be warning us of unsafe environmental conditions that could eventually seriously impact our health.

We love frogs and my twins love frogs so much that I have to do a bed check at night to ensure that they have not brought in any local frogs. While they know that any frogs we catch must go back to their families, the twins sometimes feel that certain frogs “just want to sleep with us tonight”.

We’ve decided to try and help the frogs and thus, this page on our blog has been created. We will be linking soon to a wonderful charity fundraiser that includes a beautiful frog T-Shirt created by a renowned artist. Our goal is to drive some sales to help raise funds for the EVACC center in Panama.  The El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center  (EVACC) is in central Panama where amphibians have been decimated.  This facility holds several hundred native Panamanian frogs, toads, and salamanders.  The goal is to eventually maintain as many as 1,000 animals representing approximately 40 species.  Captive breeding programs are being established for 17 high priority species.  To see the EVACC “ark”, visit the Flickr images done by Brian Gratwicke

Learn about the deadly fungus Chytrid that is wiping out amphibian populations and whole species of frogs. Learn how little you need to do to help a lot! Visit these sites below:

• Frogs Are Green
• Amphibian Ark
• Amphibian Conservation Alliance
• FROGLAND!
• Froglife (UK)
• Frogs: The Thin Green Line (PBS Nature)
• Frogwatch USA (National Wildlife Federation)
• FrogWeb
• Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation (Smithsonian)
• Project Golden Frog
• Save the Frogs!
• The Amphibian Project
• The Prince’s Rainforests Project