Panamanian Golden Frog (Atelopus zeteki)
Once common by the cloud forest streams of Central Panama, the beautiful Panamanian Golden Frog has served as a cultural icon for centuries. Revered in Panama as its national animal, these golden jewels are seen as symbols of good fortune.
Yet while they faced gradual threats in the forms of habitat destruction and overcollection for the pet trade, the species began to rapidly disappear from untouched mountain forest habitats in 1996. By 2009, the Panamanian Golden Frog had vanished from its range entirely.
Disease and Declines: Chytrid Fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatadis)
Responsible for their mysterious disappearance was an infectious disease called chytridiomycosis. Emerging in the 1970s, the disease is caused by chytrid fungus, an aquatic fungus that reproduces by releasing swimming zoospores. This makes for a terrible interaction when they enter amphibians’ skin.
Amphibians like the Panamanian Golden Frog have porous skin, which they use to drink and breathe. When too many chytrid spores invade frogs’ skin, they react by thickening it. After making it more difficult for frogs to move, but it eventually kills them through dehydration and even suffocation.
Despite numerous efforts by scientists to combat this rapidly invasive species, chytrid fungus has proved virtually unstoppable. Since its appearance in the 1980s, chytrid fungus has wiped over 90 species of amphibian off the planet, and contributed to declines of over 700 in all. And despite scientists’ best efforts, there is currently no way to remove chytrid fungus from any habitat it reaches.
Rescue into Captivity
Though chytrid fungus had already been spreading for decades, it was not until the early 2000s that it first became recognized and understood as a powerful threat. And that discovery is partially thanks to the importance of the Panamanian Golden Frog.
Due to Panamanian Golden Frogs’ fame, when they first began to disappear around the early 2000s, scientists took note and took action. For the first time, researchers rescued dozens of Panamanian Golden Frogs from the wild into captivity to ensure their survival. These captive-bred individuals are the last Panamanian Golden Frogs in existence.
Current Successes and Future Hopes
In spite of their misfortune, Panamanian Golden Frogs did bring great fortune to others. Since the Panamanian Golden Frog was rescued from extinction, numerous other frog and amphibian species have been saved in captivity as well. Panamanian Golden Frogs themselves have been kept and bred at the Nipsero Zoo in El Valle de Antón, Panama, the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, and over 50 other institutions. There, major strides have been made to immunize frogs from and even cure chytridiomycosis.
Until chytrid fungus can be removed from the wild, what is most important is to limit its spread through regulating the capture and trade of amphibians that carry it. If fortune favors it, one day that spread may even be reversed. Until then, the Panamanian Golden Frog will remain an important reminder of both the dangers of unregulated amphibian trade, and the significance of the conservation efforts that protect them.
Learn More
Visit Project Golden Frog to learn more about what is being done for Panamanian Golden Frogs and support their conservation:
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