Sunday, August 14, 2011

Vanishing Frogs


Frogs are disappearing from our planet.   At first the scientists were thinking that it is due to environmental change, but now it is clear that there is a disease caused by a fungus.  It is called a chytrid fungus.  This fungus infects frogs and gets in their skins.  Frogs have weak immune systems so the fungus turns into a serious disease.  Eventually this fungus blocks the frog skin from doing cutaneous respiration.  This blockage leads the frogs to get less oxygen in their body, so they start dying out.  What can we do?  Is there any solution to this?

Here is the movie link:

http://animal.discovery.com/videos/the-vanishing-frog-with-jeff-corwin.html

2 comments:

  1. It is such a tragedy that these frogs are dying out. I wish we could do more to prevent this endangered species from becoming extinct, but we are only trying to the best of our ability.

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  2. What caused the sudden outburst of the fungus? Was it the climate change? Or has the climate change made the frogs immune system weak therefore allowing the fungus in it's skin.
    Samantha Blundell
    Period 2

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