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Things are also looking serious for:
This is thought to be due to such factors as acid rain, ultra-violet radiation (due to a thined ozone layer), pesticides, changes in habitat etc. Such changes particularly affect frogs due to their close relationship with their environment.
The mystery is that many of the endangered/extinct species are found at high altitude in protected and pristine rainforests. They vanished in a matter of only a few months (perhaps pointing to a disease). Add to this, the fact that other frogs from the same forests have not declined and the mystery deepens. However, The frogs which have gone missing had some things in common:
This indicates that what caused their demise may have something to do with the stream environment. This type of pattern has also been repeating itself in other tropical mountainous areas of the globe such as Panama. NASA in the USA is helping to compile atmospheric data which already shows that there are definite patterns and latitudes around the globe for these declines (which are called 'mystery declines' because they are different than other causes of frog declines).
In 1998, zoologists found that a fungus may also be involved in froggy declines. The fungus (a new genus of chytrid) was independently found by researchers in both Australia and the US. It is thought to either suffocate frogs by coating their undersides and legs or by releasing a toxin. It is not yet known whether the fungus alone kills the frogs or whether frogs in an already weakened state (due to other environmental factors) are pushed over the edge by the fungus.