Rare frog faces extinction, scientists warn (CNN/AP) (Yosemite, CA)

[eppur_se_muova]

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, California (AP) -- The mountain yellow-legged frog has survived for thousands of years in lakes and streams carved by glaciers, living up to nine months under snow and ice and then emerging to issue its raspy chorus across the Sierra Nevada range.
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There are about 650 populations left in Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, but most lakes have only one to five frogs -- not enough to guarantee survival -- and 85 percent are infected with the lethal fungus.
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Despite the threat of extinction, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lacks funds to make the frog an endangered species. Federal officials also questioned what good it would do, because the fungus isn't coming from agriculture or development that can be curbed.
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"It's a mass extinction in the making," said J. Alan Pounds, who wrote an article in the journal Nature linking the fungus to global warming. His research offers the first solid clue to an international scientific mystery -- the disappearance of as many as 112 amphibian species since 1980.
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more at http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/02/11/endangered.frog.ap/index.html

This is one small part of an ongoing crisis which threatens amphibians all around the world. The BBC has covered this more than our own Money$treamMedia:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3743682.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4602116.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4262384.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4582024.stm

http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?scope=newsukfs&tab=news&q=amphibian&go.x=16&go.y=19

[HockeyMom]

1. They don't care about PEOPLE

So how can you expect them to care about animals?

[glitch]

2. amphibians are planetary canaries in the coal mine. bodes ill. nt

[KT2000]

3. Yes - tree frogs

lived around my neighbors pond for 20 years. New guy bought the house and immediately killed all the frogs and tadpoles of the pond with Roundup or the competing versions of it.
It was a deathly quiet summer with lots of mosquitoes.

Gov. is also trying to ignore the frogs with stunted, missing and extra limbs. Imagine if we could talk to these amphibians and ask how they are feeling. They might say they are suffering any number of learning disabilities, dementia and mood disorders. Good thing for the corporations - they can't talk.

[glitch]

4. I am especially fond of tree frogs, so this story makes me physically ill

I am trying not to hate, but it is getting very difficult.

[KT2000]

5. sorry about that

really, because it makes me ill too. I post this stuff because so often people do not even think about what these chemicals are really doing, but you are aware.

I love the tree frogs too - they were like friends, they would stick to my windows and doors and sometimes even got in the house.
My hope is that the neighbor will leave and the frogs will return.

Again, sorry for making you ill.

[glitch]

6. That's all right. We all need to be aware of what's going on, and you need

to talk about it, so that you don't hold it in and make yourself ill. It does make me angry, and then having to deal with my anger is what makes me feel ill.

I hope your neighbor moves too, for your sake. It sounds like you live in the country. I can never understand why people move to the country and then poison their environments and plant lawns. So bizarre. And the people who make roundup and their equivalents: I am trying very hard to pity their ignorance.