Thought to have disappeared in the 1970s, the yellow-spotted bell frog (Litoria castanea) was rediscovered in late-2009 in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. Since then, tadpoles have been taken to Sydney’s Taronga Zoo to boost populations through a captive breeding program.
“The Yellow-spotted Bell Frog (Litoria castanea) had not been seen in the wild for almost 30 years and so many people had written the species off as extinct. That was until Luke Pearce spotted what he thought might be one in a small stream on the Southern Tablelands of NSW.
“The Global Amphibian Assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) found that 30-50% of amphibians are now threatened with extinction. International scientists such as Dr Kevin Zippel have described the combined threats of loss of habitat, climate change and Chytrid fungus as the perfect storm which could lead to the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs.”
Learn more at www.wildlifeextra.com or read about 30 new frog species discovered in Ecuador.
