{"id":24186,"date":"2025-03-18T08:01:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T09:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=24186"},"modified":"2025-03-18T09:24:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T09:24:41","slug":"a-lifeboat-to-london-for-darwins-frogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=24186","title":{"rendered":"A Lifeboat to London for Darwin\u2019s Frogs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Males of the South American species incubate their young in their vocal sacs. The London Zoo recently established a breeding colony to save the frog from extinction.<\/p>\n

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The folk song \u201cFrog Went a-Courtin\u2019\u201d recounts the efforts of a sword- and pistol-toting frog to woo a mouse, who warns him that without the consent of her Uncle Rat she \u201cwouldn\u2019t marry the president.\u201d The courtship rituals of Darwin\u2019s frogs, in the cool, temperate rainforests of southern South America, are not nearly as conditional. What sets their hookups apart are the child custody arrangements.<\/p>\n

Darwin\u2019s frogs, named after Charles Darwin, who spotted them in 1834 while exploring Chilo\u00e9 Island in Chile, take an approach to parenting that is unique among amphibians: Males rear their young in their vocal sacs until the juveniles are ready to fend for themselves, a reproductive strategy known as mouth brooding.<\/p>\n

Adult Darwin\u2019s frogs are about an inch long and weigh less than a couple of paper clips. Although the frogs are thought to live as long as 15 years in the wild, they are highly susceptible to chytridiomycosis, a virulent amphibian disease<\/a> caused by the chytrid fungus. Since the 1990s, the pathogen, which invades the surface layers of skin, has been implicated in the mass die-offs of roughly 400 amphibian species and has killed off at least 90 more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A clutch of frog\u2019s eggs at the London Zoo.<\/span>Zoological Society of London, via Associated Press<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Chilo\u00e9 Island was once a sanctuary for Darwin\u2019s frogs, but two years ago monitoring confirmed the presence of the chytrid fungus. \u201cThis is likely a result of climatic change that has made local conditions more favorable for it,\u201d said John W. Wilkinson, a conservation biologist based in Britain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Within a year, a chytridiomycosis outbreak had claimed more than 90 percent of the island\u2019s Darwin\u2019s frogs. \u201cThey die within weeks of becoming infected,\u201d said Ben Tapley, a curator at the London Zoo who specializes in critically endangered reptiles and amphibians.<\/p>\n

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Males of the South American species incubate their young in their vocal sacs. The London Zoo recently established a breeding colony to save the frog from extinction.The folk song \u201cFrog Went a-Courtin\u2019\u201d recounts the efforts of a sword- and pistol-toting frog to woo a mouse, who warns him that without the consent of her Uncle Rat she \u201cwouldn\u2019t marry the president.\u201d The courtship rituals of Darwin\u2019s frogs, in the cool, temperate rainforests of southern South America, are not nearly as conditional. What sets their hookups apart are the child custody arrangements.Darwin\u2019s frogs, named after Charles Darwin, who spotted them in 1834 while exploring Chilo\u00e9 Island in Chile, take an approach to parenting that is unique among amphibians: Males rear their young in their vocal sacs until the juveniles are ready to fend for themselves, a reproductive strategy known as mouth brooding.Adult Darwin\u2019s frogs are about an inch long and weigh less than a couple of paper clips. Although the frogs are thought to live as long as 15 years in the wild, they are highly susceptible to chytridiomycosis, a virulent amphibian disease caused by the chytrid fungus. Since the 1990s, the pathogen, which invades the surface layers of skin, has been implicated in the mass die-offs of roughly 400 amphibian species and has killed off at least 90 more.A clutch of frog\u2019s eggs at the London Zoo.Zoological Society of London, via Associated PressChilo\u00e9 Island was once a sanctuary for Darwin\u2019s frogs, but two years ago monitoring confirmed the presence of the chytrid fungus. \u201cThis is likely a result of climatic change that has made local conditions more favorable for it,\u201d said John W. Wilkinson, a conservation biologist based in Britain.Within a year, a chytridiomycosis outbreak had claimed more than 90 percent of the island\u2019s Darwin\u2019s frogs. \u201cThey die within weeks of becoming infected,\u201d said Ben Tapley, a curator at the London Zoo who specializes in critically endangered reptiles and amphibians.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24188,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24186"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24189,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24186\/revisions\/24189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}