Frogs of Panama

In recent years, conservation biologists have drawn our attention to a worldwide decline in wild populations of frogs, toads, and salamanders - a phenomenon that has come to be called the Global Amphibian Crisis. While habitat loss is still considered the most serious threat to the majority of species, especially in the humid tropical forest regions of the world, a fungal disease known as chytrid has been identified as being exceptionally deadly to amphibians, while not seeming to affect other groups of vertebrates - fish, reptiles, birds and mammals. A frog-killing fungus in Central and South America spreads in waves like other infectious diseases, challenging a theory that climate change is to blame. El Valle Amphibian Rescue Center in El Valle de Anto?n en Panama?. In response to this need, the Houston Zoo established the Center in central Panama. Cochranella euknemus.Fringe-Limbed Tree Frog. (Photo by: Kike Calvo/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)