[Music]
the golden frog of Panama is part of the
small Central American countries culture
people here have long treasured this
colorful and phibian considering it a
symbol of good luck prosperity but today
Panama’s frogs are under siege both six
or seven years when I came here first
time we have to we have to watch our
step because there were so many golden
frogs around that we we actually have to
be careful because we didn’t want to
step on the Frog and now and it’s we
only have seen one frog up here one and
probably thirty minutes so what’s
happening it seems there’s a dangerous
predator on the prowl in the form of the
naturally occurring fungus called Chitra
and it’s spreading like a black plague
over this majestic land killing almost
every species of frog in its path
eventually it’s still the cells from the
skin of the frogs so after a while the
Frog will try to get rid of the kidron
by producing more skin which cause that
the skin of a frog gets thicker and then
because of that flux grid through the
skin then eventually the frogs will die
of suffocation in an effort to save this
treasured species the Houston Zoo has
put Panamanian biologist Edgardo
Griffith to work he and his team are
rounding up every frog they can find in
the ouvea region of Panama
the frogs have taken up residence at the
hotel competitor II in two rented rooms
the researchers have converted into labs
I talked with the owner and the manager
of a hotel campestre and I don’t think
that they had an idea of what was
actually gonna happen at those hotel
rooms because two of those hotel rooms
we we change it we took all the beds out
and all the furniture for the hotel and
we put just a lot of shelving and a lot
of critters keeper the disease can be
successfully treated but only if it’s
caught in the early stages and the frogs
can never return to the wild
the race to save what’s left of them can
only be described as an organized panic
since some 120 of Central America’s and
phibian species are believed to have
gone extinct because of the fungus since
1980 once they get to a hotel room they
goes into the quarantine safe section
then we put them in a clean room and in
that room we have to keep taking care of
them
keeping this many frogs alive also
requires a steady supply of live insects
and one bug is not as good as the next
for these amphibians appetites the
golden frogs prefer termites by day
while other species enjoy various sizes
of crickets by night
and we collect about 300 to 400 crickets
every night and if they goes from Havana
inch to probably four or five eight
inches
[Music]
the whole process takes up to six hours
each night from collecting to going back
to the hotel to feed more than 250
hungry inhabitants I mean when you grab
them immediately they will try to bite
you so we use a glove for that but just
to kind of feel more safe
it’s crazy yes it’s crazy I got 80 now
so I just need 20 more to get my whole
[Music]
space is limited so a new artificial
home is being constructed at the nearby
L nice Poirot Zoo researchers have high
hopes for breeding the frogs and
releasing them back to the wild but not
until a solution to the Chitra problem
is found
one of my goal is to have a very good
successful breeding program hoping that
we can figure out a way how to create
resistance or to fight the fungus in the
wire unfortunately even if the
researchers find a way to reduce or even
eliminate the threat of Chitra
the Golden Frog and other species will
still have to survive other folds
whether the illegal collectors find out
that a stream like this one had frog
don’t come basically every week it’s a
very illegal thing to do people keep
doing even when Kittredge is killing the
frogs and then another reason why they
are not that abundant as habitat lost I
mean they’re getting a attack from every
size from the top from the bottom from
the water from the Skype and everywhere
and the kids we just came to finish them
it may be a long time before the forest
is safe for golden frogs but with a
conservation effort so the Houston Zoo
and biologists like a Gardo Griffith the
last of Panama’s and FIB ian’s may still
have a fighting chance
sponsored by the my wonderful world
campaign join us today and help give
kids the power of global knowledge
sponsored by National Geographic mission
programs taking science and exploration
into the new millennium sign up now at
my wonderful world org and receive our
free newsletter and resources join more
than 80,000 people and lend your voice
to call for better geography education
because kids who understand our world
today can succeed in it tomorrow
the golden frog of Panama is part of the
small Central American countries culture
people here have long treasured this
colorful and phibian considering it a
symbol of good luck prosperity but today
Panama’s frogs are under siege both six
or seven years when I came here first
time we have to we have to watch our
step because there were so many golden
frogs around that we we actually have to
be careful because we didn’t want to
step on the Frog and now and it’s we
only have seen one frog up here one and
probably thirty minutes so what’s
happening it seems there’s a dangerous
predator on the prowl in the form of the
naturally occurring fungus called Chitra
and it’s spreading like a black plague
over this majestic land killing almost
every species of frog in its path
eventually it’s still the cells from the
skin of the frogs so after a while the
Frog will try to get rid of the kidron
by producing more skin which cause that
the skin of a frog gets thicker and then
because of that flux grid through the
skin then eventually the frogs will die
of suffocation in an effort to save this
treasured species the Houston Zoo has
put Panamanian biologist Edgardo
Griffith to work he and his team are
rounding up every frog they can find in
the ouvea region of Panama
the frogs have taken up residence at the
hotel competitor II in two rented rooms
the researchers have converted into labs
I talked with the owner and the manager
of a hotel campestre and I don’t think
that they had an idea of what was
actually gonna happen at those hotel
rooms because two of those hotel rooms
we we change it we took all the beds out
and all the furniture for the hotel and
we put just a lot of shelving and a lot
of critters keeper the disease can be
successfully treated but only if it’s
caught in the early stages and the frogs
can never return to the wild
the race to save what’s left of them can
only be described as an organized panic
since some 120 of Central America’s and
phibian species are believed to have
gone extinct because of the fungus since
1980 once they get to a hotel room they
goes into the quarantine safe section
then we put them in a clean room and in
that room we have to keep taking care of
them
keeping this many frogs alive also
requires a steady supply of live insects
and one bug is not as good as the next
for these amphibians appetites the
golden frogs prefer termites by day
while other species enjoy various sizes
of crickets by night
and we collect about 300 to 400 crickets
every night and if they goes from Havana
inch to probably four or five eight
inches
[Music]
the whole process takes up to six hours
each night from collecting to going back
to the hotel to feed more than 250
hungry inhabitants I mean when you grab
them immediately they will try to bite
you so we use a glove for that but just
to kind of feel more safe
it’s crazy yes it’s crazy I got 80 now
so I just need 20 more to get my whole
[Music]
space is limited so a new artificial
home is being constructed at the nearby
L nice Poirot Zoo researchers have high
hopes for breeding the frogs and
releasing them back to the wild but not
until a solution to the Chitra problem
is found
one of my goal is to have a very good
successful breeding program hoping that
we can figure out a way how to create
resistance or to fight the fungus in the
wire unfortunately even if the
researchers find a way to reduce or even
eliminate the threat of Chitra
the Golden Frog and other species will
still have to survive other folds
whether the illegal collectors find out
that a stream like this one had frog
don’t come basically every week it’s a
very illegal thing to do people keep
doing even when Kittredge is killing the
frogs and then another reason why they
are not that abundant as habitat lost I
mean they’re getting a attack from every
size from the top from the bottom from
the water from the Skype and everywhere
and the kids we just came to finish them
it may be a long time before the forest
is safe for golden frogs but with a
conservation effort so the Houston Zoo
and biologists like a Gardo Griffith the
last of Panama’s and FIB ian’s may still
have a fighting chance
sponsored by the my wonderful world
campaign join us today and help give
kids the power of global knowledge
sponsored by National Geographic mission
programs taking science and exploration
into the new millennium sign up now at
my wonderful world org and receive our
free newsletter and resources join more
than 80,000 people and lend your voice
to call for better geography education
because kids who understand our world
today can succeed in it tomorrow
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