Written by Carmelo Amalfi Wednesday, 28 November 2007 15:18
Housed in three transportable buildings converted for research, frogs are kept at different temperatures to mimic the cooler south-west of WA, Perth and warmer Kimberley region. A fully automated wastewater treatment plant operates at each frog "hut" to avoid the introduction of diseases from other parts of the State.
After two years work on three South-West species of frog (Geocrinia alba, Geocrinia vitellina, Spicospina flammocaerula), researchers say they are close to successfully rearing native frogs in captivity.
Program leader Helen Robertson said the four-year project funded by the State Government was launched in response to concern over the decline of amphibians worldwide, including in WA.
Responding to the first outbreak of a deadly frog fungus in WA's South-West several years ago, researchers at the WA Museum, University of Western Australia, Murdoch University and Department of Environment and Conservation developed the new captive breeding program as a safety net for collapsing frog populations.
Dr Robertson said WA's native frogs lived in highly acidic environments, which were difficult to mimic and maintain in a laboratory environment. Some frogs developed directly, over several months, from eggs laid in small depressions in the soil.
"This is real pioneer science," she told ScienceNetwork WA. "We're leaning about the basic biology of some of the most vulnerable species in WA. This can involve weighing and measuring every week babies the size of the tip on a ballpoint pen."
The program also involved developing projects such as freezing and storing sperm and embryos of threatened species in WA's South-West and Kimberley regions.
The Frog Breeding and Research Program is funded by a contribution of $453,884 over four years from WA's Department of Industry and Resources.
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THE 2008 Year of the Frog is a global campaign to raise public awareness of the threats faced by nearly half of the planet's 6000 known species of amphibians. Having survived for more than 360 million years, populations of frogs and toads, salamanders and newts are succumbing to habitat destruction, introduced pests such as the cane toad, and a devastating disease called Chytrid fungus (pronounced kit-rid). Nearly one-third of the known species of frogs in the world face extinction. Recently, Australia lost two native frog species to the fungus. More than half of Australia's remaining threatened frog species are infected with the killer disease, whose global spread may have been exacerbated by climate change. Unstoppable and untreatable in the wild, the fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) kills by attacking the keratin in the resistant layer of the frog's skin. Keratin is a fibrous protein found in our hair and nails and in feathers, horns and hooves of other animals. Frogs use their skin to breathe and drink, so it is believed the fungus "suffocates" the animal to death. But Australian researchers believe the fungus may be losing some of its sting, with reports of frog populations surviving outbreaks in the wild. Initially, the fungus wipes out almost everything in sight, with survivors carrying a slight variation of the pathogen that is not as virulent. In a couple of cases, frogs returned to where the species had previously become extinct, and survived. The Year of the Frog is coordinated by the World Conservation Union and World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Perth Zoo is providing visitors with opportunities to support the worldwide conservation effort through a number of special events and fundraising activities planned during the year. For more information visit http://www.amphibianark.org/yearofthefrog.htm |
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