amphibians on the edge

I recently came across a really interesting video made by EDGE - an initiative ran by the Zoological Society London (ZSL) that has numbered 100 'edge species' - species that are evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered. Many are species that most people won't think about, but they are weird and wonderful and this initiative is doing a fantastic job in raising their profile.

I've had a look into two of my favourites. Number 4 on the list is the Purple frog Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis, native to the Western Ghats of India. Who'd have thought there was such a weird looking frog - it is the only frog in its family and so is certainly unique. Much is still unknown about the species, with basic aspects of its reproductive behaviour and development only being documented in the past few years (Zachariah et al. 2012, Raj et al. 2012, Thomas et al. 2014). This is likely because of its very elusive lifestyle - it lives and forages underground and only comes above for a few weeks a year in which to mate.

Number 2 on the EDGE amphibian list is the Chinese Giant Salamander. This is the largest amphibian in the world measuring a wopping great 1-1.5m. Now imagine if our palmate newts were that size!! I have to say that before I watched this video I didn't know much about these amazing giants but they are critically endangered, and are in urgent need of help. Their declines stem mainly from habitat loss, over hunting and the farming market but a study in 2011 also found large scale deaths in giant salamander farms in the Shangzi Province to be caused by a ranavirus (Geng et al. 2011) which has since been shown to be very similar to previously known strains (Wang et al. 2014).

Poor amphibians, like most wildlife, are being hit at all angles with threats ranging from over exploitation to habitat fragmentation and disease. To watch this really interesting mini documentary about ZSL's plight to save the Chinese Giant Salamander head here.