Amphibians Suffering Unprecedented Decline, Global Study Finds

The first worldwide assessment of amphibians--the group that includes frogs,
toads, salamanders and caecilians--concludes that they are in even more
trouble than mammals and birds are. The study classifies nearly a third of
the 5,743 known amphibian species as threatened. And another quarter might
be if scientists knew more about them. In many cases, the researchers could
not explain the threat in terms of known causes, such as habitat destruction
or hunting.

Five hundred and twenty scientists in more than 60 countries contributed to
the Global Amphibian Assessment, coordinated by IUCN, Conservation
International and NatureServe. Regional experts decided whether each species
was "vulnerable," "endangered" or "critically
endangered." The IUCN Red List
of threatened species defines these categories using such criteria as
population size, population decrease and species range reduction. A report
published online yesterday by Science summarizes the results.

Full Text at Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000C98B6-F266-116E-B24F83414B7FFE87

Posted by
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