the golden frog of Panama is more than a
colorful and phibian it’s part of the
small Central American countries culture
people here have long treasured as
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
chittering 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 the 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 Ohio 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 on the manager of
a hotel campestre and I don’t think that
they had an idea of what was actually
going to happen at those hotel rooms
because two of those hotel rooms we we
change it we took all the bats out and
all the furniture for the hotel and we
put just a lot of shelving and a lot of
critter 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 safety 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 anak they goes from Havana
inch to probably four or five eight
inches the whole process takes up to six
hours each night from collecting 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 porch
space is limited so a new artificial
home is being constructed at the nearby
El nice Pedro 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 children the Golden Frog
and other species will still have to
survive other photos whether the illegal
collectors find out that a stream like
this one had frog toe 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 of Union
has habitat loss I mean they’re getting
a attack from every size from the top
from the bottom from the water from the
sky from 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 to the Houston Zoo and biologists
like a guard Oh Griffin the last of
Panama’s and FIB Ian’s they still have a
fighting chance sponsored by National
Geographic mission programs
taking science and exploration into the
new millennium
colorful and phibian it’s part of the
small Central American countries culture
people here have long treasured as
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
chittering 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 the 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 Ohio 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 on the manager of
a hotel campestre and I don’t think that
they had an idea of what was actually
going to happen at those hotel rooms
because two of those hotel rooms we we
change it we took all the bats out and
all the furniture for the hotel and we
put just a lot of shelving and a lot of
critter 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 safety 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 anak they goes from Havana
inch to probably four or five eight
inches the whole process takes up to six
hours each night from collecting 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 porch
space is limited so a new artificial
home is being constructed at the nearby
El nice Pedro 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 children the Golden Frog
and other species will still have to
survive other photos whether the illegal
collectors find out that a stream like
this one had frog toe 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 of Union
has habitat loss I mean they’re getting
a attack from every size from the top
from the bottom from the water from the
sky from 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 to the Houston Zoo and biologists
like a guard Oh Griffin the last of
Panama’s and FIB Ian’s they still have a
fighting chance sponsored by National
Geographic mission programs
taking science and exploration into the
new millennium
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