Year of the Frog

The world’s amphibians are facing a mass extinction. To raise awareness of this crisis and to raise vital funds to help fight it, Bristol Zoo is participating in the world-wide Year of the Frog Campaign. Carol Vorderman has put her name behind this campaign to help protect the species from extinction.

There are currently around 6000 known species of amphibians. The groups of amphibians are frogs newts, salamanders and caecilians. Almost one third of these – that’s some 2000 species - are now listed as threatened by the IUCN’s amphibian specialist group [ASG].

A quarter of amphibian species are described as “Data Deficient” which means that they have not yet been assessed. Some species may have already gone extinct without us knowing.

The biggest factor contributing to the decline is habitat loss or degradation, closely followed by pollution, climate change and infectious diseases. Together, these can have a huge impact.

One infection that is causing very serious concern is the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This infection blocks the skin of amphibians, preventing them from being able to breathe. It has caused the most dramatic species declines in parts of Australia, Central and South America and has now been found here in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

The Year of the Frog Campaign is a massive global effort to stop these issues from wiping out thousands of amphibian species. Join us at Bristol Zoo and help to really make a difference. There are lots of ways you can raise money and directly contribute to saving a species. One great way to help save a species and give a unique gift to someone you love is to Adopt a Frog.

Adopt a frog on line here. If you have any queries about adopting an animal please call 0117 974 7300 or e-mail adoption [at] bristolzoo [dot] org [dot] uk

Bristol Zoo Gardens keep and successfully breed many amphibian species. We are also due to open an amphibian breeding sanctuary called the 'AmpiPod' to breed two frog species on the verge of extinction. The extinction crisis is mainly due to man’s destruction of amphibians’ natural habitats, but in a deadly combination with pollution and climate change, they now face an even bigger and deadlier threat – a fungal disease called ‘amphibian Chytrid’ (chytridiomycosis). We hope to populate the Bristol Zoo amphibian pod with endangered lemur leaf frogs from Costa Rica and the endangered golden mantella frogs from Madagascar. Click here for more information