Frogs

Amphibians are a large group of fascinating animals that include frogs, toads, newts, salamanders and caecilians, and this group has been around for more than 360 million years.

They show a wide range of beauty in form and function, and are a key part of our ecosystems, playing important roles in the food web and nutrient cycling. People have long recognised their importance with amphibians playing a role in many human cultures around the world.

The direct benefits amphibians provide to humans, through their control of invertebrate pests, as indicators of environmental health and as a source of human medicines, are becoming more widely recognised. Due to their permeable skin and laying naked eggs in the water, amphibians are uniquely sensitive to environmental changes, and this characteristic has led scientists to refer to amphibians as canaries in the coal mine.
The problem is that these canaries are dying.

Approximately 6000 species of amphibians are known across the world, but sadly up to 50% of these species may be threatened with extinction, with 120 species already known to have become extinct since 1980.

Issues like habitat loss and over-harvesting are known to threaten amphibians, and some of these threats can be reduced through the protection of frog habitat. Other threats such as invasive species, climate change, pollution and disease work over much larger areas and do not respect park boundaries. As such, a multi-pronged approach is being developed to deal with what has become known as the Global Amphibian Extinction Crisis.

A population of 1000 cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) have been estimated to consume almost 5 million invertebrates a year, acting as significant predators of small invertebrates. In areas where invertebrates have declined there has been an increase in invertebrate pests that damage crops and carry disease.