"Disease is the bullet killing frogs, but climate change is pulling the trigger," Pounds says.įrogs are one type of amphibian, a group of animals that also includes toads, salamanders, and wormlike caecilians (si-SIL-yuns). But now, Pounds and other scientists think they've found an answer: Warming temperatures around the globe may be making frogs more prone to disease. Researchers have puzzled for decades over why harlequin frogs and other amphibian species have been vanishing (see pie chart, p. Today, approximately two thirds of harlequin frog species are extinct in the wild. But during the 1980s and 1990s, these frogs started dying out in droves. ![]() At least 110 species of these bright orange, green, or yellow striped frogs used to live near streams in Monteverde, Costa Rica, and in 10 other Central and South American countries. The area's harlequin frogs have been hit especially hard. Why the silence? Monteverde's frogs are rapidly disappearing. "Now, the sound is a pale version of what it used to be," says Pounds. Others belted out high-pitched "ping-pingpings" like giant dripping faucets. At night, frogs sat along stream banks, sounding off low, noisy croaks. Alan Pounds first visited the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in Costa Rica 25 years ago, a deafening chorus of frog calls filled the air.
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