Havens for frogs in Peril

 
The familiar melody of ribbits, croaks and chrips is disapperaring as a mysterios killer fungus wipes out frog populations around the globe, in a phenomenon likened to the extinction of dinosaurs
Scientists from around the world are meeting here on Thursday and Friday to organize a worldwide effort to stem the deaths by asking zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens to taken in threatened frogs until the fungus can be stopped.

The aim of the group called Amphibian Ark is to prevent the world's more than 6,000 species of frogs, salamanders and wormlike Sicilians from disappearing. Scientists estimate up to 170 species of frogs have become extinct in the past decade from the fungus and other causes, and an additional 1,900 species are threatened.

(The Hindu,16th February 2007)