Amphibians; a declining population Around the world many animals are being affected by their changing environments, with some of the most important ones being amphibians. Currently amphibians are being killed off at an astounding rate. This decline can be contributed to many things, such as disease, habitat loss, pollution and climate change. Over the last couple decades over 40% of amphibians have officially begun to suffer population loss. This has led countless organizations to pursue a solution to this problem. Many of these malignant factors are being caused by humans. Factors such as climate change, deforestation, and pollution. Little by little habitats are being destroyed leading to a loss of carrying capacity for these amphibians. However there are also factors working against amphibians that humans are not in control of; one of them being fungus. Most amphibians are very dependent on the state of their environment, meaning that any change in climate could lead to disastrous consequences. As an example when there is a considerably temperature drop in a frog’s ecosystem their immune system is …show more content…
They rely heavily on their skin’s permeability as it allows them to breath and perform gas exchange processes. However in recent years amphibians have been attacked by new form of fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This protist targets keratin which is present in the entire adult body of a frog. It inhibits the permeable nature of the skin preventing the organism from intaking moisture and oxygen. This inhibition is very dangerous due to the amphibian not being able to continue cutaneous respiration( respiration through the skin). There are some that amphibians like the peruvian frog that are resistant to this fungus and researchers world wild are attempting to find out why. Many of these scientists believe that it may be due to genetic related
Hyla versicolor, commonly know as the Gray Tree Frog or the Eastern Gray Tree Frog, is an amphibian that is referred to as the “Chameleon of the Frog world” (Craighead, 2004, p.1) because of its ability to change colors. “This frog was once thought to be the same species as the Cope’s Gray Tree Frog”. They can only be distinguished by their calls and the fact that the Cope Gray Tree Frog is diploid while the Gray Tree Frog is tetraploid (NPWRC, 2004). The Gray Tree Frog is classified as follows:
because that is what is causing extinction. In 2016 because of climate change, some animals got
Since then, cane toads have been moving through Australia Northern scene and are moving westbound at 40 to 60 km each year. Cane toads populated Brisbane by 1945, Burketown by the mid-1980s, cane toad amphibians were acquainted in Byron Bay in 1965 and spread to shorelines of NSW in 2003. Cane toads colonise areas of human habitation and cause major impacts on health concerns to people, the risk of children or pets being poison from contact with the toads is a major concern. For Aboriginal people traditional food sources, the devastating impact on the native predator species such as goannas is also a concern, cane toads produce large numbers of offspring causing major concerns to the rapid increase rate of cane toads, research from the University of Sydney shows that cane toads are evolving adaptations to suit their new biodiversity, allowing toads to move at a rapid
Cane Toads are native to Central and South America but was introduced to Northern Australia. The Cane Toad was brought to Northern Australia to get rid of pests, but instead it became a pest itself. Cane Toads are harming the environment by growing rapidly and wiping out other species. As their population grows they take up more space and resources which also harms other species. The Cane Toads are able to grow rapidly because there aren’t many natural predators, and they poison whatever eats them. Because of those two factors Cane Toads can easily survive.
As the wood frogs are ectothermic, one of the major adaptations to their envionment is the adaptation to climate change.
Stuart, S. N., Chanson, J. S., Cox, N. A., Young, B. E., Rodrigues, A. S. L., Fischman, D. L., & Waller, R. W. (2004, October 14). Status and Trends of Amphibian Declines and Extinctions Worldwide. Abstract retrieved from Science Mag website: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/306/5702/1783
This article looks at the impact of having an energetically costly immune system on the rest of the body’s functional traits. This article found that crickets metabolic rates were heritable and that there was no connection between immune functions and metabolic rate.
There are some nice adaptations for the Strawberry dart frog. They can extract toxic alkaloids from variance of mites, ants, millipedes, and beetles. When they extract these poisons, they store it in compounds in glands on their skin. Lisa Lester says that when the frog feels threatened, they can release the toxins stored in their glands at the enemy. (Lisa Lester, “Strawberry Poison Frogs Feed Their Babies Poison Eggs”)
The Axolotl, a crucially endangered neotenous species of mole salamander, has adapted to fit its environment so it can easily catch food and evade predators. The Axolotl’s habitat is the lake system of Xochimilco that is near Mexico City, Mexico. This shallow, fresh water lake complex has a temperature range of 6- 20°C and a pH of 7- 12. The complex also has the Axolotl’s primary food sources of mollusk, insect larvae, and other crustaceans. However, with the introduction of foreign species such as the Asian Carp and the African Tilapia, the Axolotl now has predators that may eat and threaten it, and it has competition for the animals it usually eats. Fortunately, the Axolotl has developed adaptations that aid it in catching food and evading predators. To help it catch food the Axolotl’s teeth are shaped like cones, so that its “vacuum” action of sucking in as much water in order to also eat food is aided by the shape of the teeth, which allow it to grip, rather than chew. To aid them in avoiding predators they are able to metamorphose so that they use their lungs more than their gill, which allows them to leave very toxic waters and the predators within. Another adaption that helps them deflect any predator is that they are able to regenerate body parts that have been lost, allowing them to stay as strong as possible. Axolotl’s have adaptations that aid their survival from predators in the lake complex Xochimilco that they reside in.
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura. The order Anura is broken down into 22 different families of frogs and toads. Although they belong to the same order, frogs and toads are different in a lot of ways. Some of the more distinct differences are their skin and where they live. Frogs usually have smooth moist skin and toads usually have dry watery looking skin. Frogs spend most of their lives in or near water and toads spend more time on land. Amphibian means "double life." Frogs and toads each have two parts to their lives: when they live on water and when they live land. A frog's life starts in the water when it is hatched from an egg as a tadpole. A tadpole looks very different from an adult frog. A tadpole has a tail, no limbs, and breathes through gills. After a while the tadpole goes through metamorphosis. During the change the frog grows limbs, the tail disappears, it uses lungs to breathe, and it doesn't have to live in water anymore. As a tadpole, the frog feeds mostly on vegetation. The tadpoles have a small rasping mouth suited especially for scraping algea from the bottom of ponds. Depending on the species, it can take a few weeks to a year or more for the tadpoles to become fully grown. Not all frogs hatch as tadpoles. Some species of frogs hatch as froglets. Froglets look just like adult frogs but are a lot smaller. Froglets don't go through a metamophosis. Most species that hatch as froglets are found in dry places. Frogs who live in dry places where rains are seasonal have to grow up quickly because a tadpole will die if their temporary pond dries up. Adult frogs can live in water or on land, but it always needs to be near water so its respiratory organs don't dry out.
Since the 1980’s scientists have noted the decline of many frog species. People do not know for certain what has caused these declines. A possible factor is pollution, disease, habitat destruction, and acid rain. Another factor may be the thinning of the earth’s protective ozone layer, which allows more harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun to reach the earth. Because frogs have thin, moist skin and an aquatic tadpole stage, they are easily affected by pollution and changes in the environment.
slow extinction, or did it happen all of the sudden? These questions bring rise to many
Many scientists were fascinated by the creatures that seemed to disappear from the forests of Queensland every year and during this time were thought to be hibernating. Although before they had a chance to study them in further detail the frogs became extinct.
Any species which fall into the categories vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered are considered to be at risk of extinction. Robert Redford said “I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security defense of our resource’s because it’s just as important as defense abroad otherwise what is there to defend?” People should all take the environment more seriously and protect the future for those to come. It’s our responsibility to ensure that the children to come may enjoy all of earth’s beauty, and not through old issues of National Geographic’s.
In the world today there are about five thousand endangered species. Around one specie dies out every year. Some animals become endangered because people are killing them for their horns, as in the case of the Black Rhino of Africa. Others become extinct because pesticides are put on the food we eat, causing the animals that eat the insects off the plant to become contaminated, which causes their predators to become contaminated, which often affects the shell of that organism?s egg. Here is a list of the endangered species, 91 endangered birds, 76 endangered mammals, 36 endangered reptiles, 21 endangered amphibians, 115 endangered fish, 70 endangered clams, 35 endangered snails, 44 endangered insects, 12 endangered arachnids, 21 endangered crustaceans, 594 endangered flowering plants.