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Image right: Common basilisk lizard female, Basiliscus basiliscus. (Photo by Steven Johnson)

In a study recently published in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, scientists took skin swabs from individuals of 13 different species of lizards and 8 different species of snakes caught in western and central Panama. DNA analysis of the swabs revealed that 16 percent of the lizards and 38 percent of the snakes carried the chytrid fungus on their skin. None of the reptiles that tested positive for the disease showed signs of infection or sickness comparable to what is observed in amphibians stricken with the disease.

Image left: The anolis lizard Anolis humilis. (Photo by Shawn Mallan)

“Lizards and snakes will harbor Batrachochytrium dedrobatidis at non-pathological levels,” the researchers write, and infection in reptiles is highly plausible. “By potentially maintaining the pathogen in the environment without succumbing to the disease, these reptiles may be important vectors or reservoir hosts for Batrachochytrium dedrobatidis… and may allow virulent strains of it to spread.”

While the study presents no evidence that chytridiomycosis is lethal to reptiles, its presence on the skin of reptiles in areas that have witnessed the decline of both amphibians and reptiles in recent years is cause for concern, the scientists say.

Image right: The tropical snake Imantodes cenchoa. (Photo by Geoff Gallice)

“Reptiles as potential vectors and hosts of the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in Panama,” by Vanessa Kilburn and David Green of McGill University and Roberto Ibanez of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, was published in December in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms.

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Image right: The Red-eyed treefrog (Agalychnis callidryas) is one of the species the team will be examining in Panama. (Photo by Brian Gratwicke)

Belden is leading a team of researchers who will study the microbial communities living on the skins of frogs that are surviving the fungal scourge. The effort is one of 11 new Dimensions of Biodiversity projects funded by the National Science Foundation with the aim of transforming, by 2020, how scientists describe and understand the scope and role of life on earth. Additional members of the $2 million research project are Virginia Tech’s Leanna House, assistant professor of statistics, and Roderick Jensen, professor of biological sciences; Brian Gratwicke, a research biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, and Roberto Ibáñez, a scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama; Reid Harris, professor of biology at James Madison University; and Kevin Minbiole, assistant professor of organic and natural products chemistry at Villanova University;

The goals of the research team will be achieved through hands on work in Panama, where the spread of chytrid fungus has been extensively documented. Researchers will swab the skin of frogs in areas with and without chytrid to collect samples of the microbes that live there. They will then release the frogs and assess the microbial community, both in terms of what microbes are there and what they are doing functionally on the frogs’ skin. To see what microbes are there, researchers will examine the microbe DNA. To see what the microbes are doing, researchers will examine how well they inhibit the growth of the chytrid fungus, and also assess what chemical metabolites are being produced by the microbes.

As leaders of the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project the Smithsonian’s Brian Gratwicke and Roberto Ibáñez are maintaining captive colonies of endangered Panamanian frogs that are highly susceptible to the chytrid fungus. The hope is that the use of probiotics will someday allow release some of these species back into nature.

The research team is interested in whether microbial communities on the skin of frogs have a role in disease resistance, in particular to the devastating chytrid fungus. And if there is such immunity, does it rely on the same mechanism from one frog to another, on different species of frogs, and in different locations?

“Our long-term goal is to try to develop probiotics” – to share the biochemistry employed by beneficial microbes with frogs who need it,” Belden said.–Source: Virginia Tech

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“An important component of successful communication is being able to tell which sender among many is sending the signal,” explains Farris. “In auditory neuroscience it’s called the ‘cocktail party problem.’ A good example of a mistake in source assignment is when a ventriloquist performs.”

Image right: A tungara frog (Photo by Brian Gratwicke)

To understand how the brain solves the cocktail party problem – assigning sounds to their correct source in a noisy or multi-source environment – the researchers chose to study the tungara frog because, unlike other subject species, it easily performs this complex behavior. The way it communicates is also a research asset. Male tungara frogs produce complex calls (not just repeated notes) consisting of two components that are speech-like: the vowel-like “whine” and the consonant-like “chuck.”

For female tungara frogs, assigning the distinct components of male calls to the correct source is particularly challenging because males sing in aggregations, producing overlapping calls that lead to perceptual errors just like at a cocktail party. But, it’s particularly important to the mate-searching female that she can accurately distinguish the male whose call she prefers from all of the others.

Using the labs at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, Farris and Ryan investigated two types of cues/parameters of the call – spatial separation and call syntax – as potential cues for proper source assignment. Interestingly, they found that the frogs, like humans, use relative comparisons to form auditory groups that are assigned to the same source. This means that they take the available sounds and then group those that are most similar. And they are more likely to group the two components with the smallest relative differences in call parameters. This is a flexible strategy that humans use in some conditions as well.

“Thus, in noisy, complicated environments, the cognitive solution is not based on absolute stimulus rules, but one which compares all the sounds and then deduces their sources,” Farris says. “Based on our research, we now have a better understanding of how the acoustic cues are used to solve the problem, an understanding that will guide research advances to solve communication problems associated with hearing deficits and disorders of attention.”

The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, as well as the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Balboa, Panama.–Source: Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center

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Image right: A wild hellbender captured and released during a recent survey in southwest Virginia. Click photo to enlarge.  (Photos by J.D. Kleopfer, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries).

Now, a new study of hellbenders by scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute will place these amphibians at the center of the conservation of Appalachian salamanders. The Appalachian region has the greatest diversity of salamanders in the world. Some 76 different salamander species live in this area, and most are found nowhere else in the world. With a warming trend of between 2 and 6 degrees Celsius predicted for the coming century, biologists are concerned about the future of these amphibians, many of which live in cool microclimates.

Image left: Kimberly Terrell of the Smithsonian and Bill Hopkins of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, snorkel for hellbenders during a recent survey in southwest Virginia.

To better understand how hellbenders will respond to global warming, scientists at the Conservation Biology Institute plan to monitor a population of hellbenders in laboratory tanks at the Reptile Discovery Center of the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. Conditions in the tanks will reflect the short-term temperature fluctuations, seasonal temperature variation, and the overall warming predicted for coming decades.

Scientists will closely follow the physiology of the hellbenders under these conditions to determine how warming effects them, if at all—be it stress, slowing of their metabolism or changes in their immune system.

Image right: Bill Hopkins swabs a wild hellbender held by Kimberly Terrell to test for the presence of the chytrid fungus. The animal was safely released.

“Global warming is considered the primary threat facing Appalachian salamanders,” says Kimberly Terrell, a researcher at the Center for Species Survival at the Conservation Biology Institute. “Yet there is almost no information regarding the physiological effects of temperature change in these species.”

A second part of the study will include a survey of wild hellbenders in streams in Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Hellbender health and habitat data collected from these surveys—such as water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen levels, pollutants—will be integrated with the laboratory data to determine how these factors might combine with warming to undermine hellbender fitness. The survey also will include tagging the animals and testing individuals for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (also known as Bd or the chytrid fungus), a devastating pathogen that has driven dozens of amphibian species to extinction. The ability of this fungus to cause disease in the eastern hellbender is unknown. The Smithsonian is partenering with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries on the project research and surveys.

Image left: This cool mountain stream in southwest Virginia is prime habitat for the eastern hellbender.

Data from a previous health assessment survey of hellbenders, conducted from 2006 to 2009 by Barbara Wolfe, Director of Conservation Medicine at The Wilds (Cumberland, Ohio), also will be integrated into the study.

Since the 1970’s, hellbender populations have mysteriously declined in several portions of their range, Terrell explains. “By establishing a set of known constraints to adapting to climate change in these animals, our research can help determine the causes of recent declines, warn us of future declines in certain areas and help inform conservation management plans for all Appalachian salamanders,” Terrell says. “Hellbenders are an ideal model species for dozens of other Appalachian salamanders.” –John Barrat

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Image left: Toad Mountain harlequin frog.

“We would like to save all of the species in the Darien, but there isn’t time to do that now,” said Brian Gratwicke, biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and international coordinator for the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project. “Our project is one of a few to take an active stance against the probable extinction of these species. We have already succeeded in breeding three species in captivity. Time may be running out, but we are looking for more resources to take advantage of the time that remains.”

The Darien National Park is a World Heritage site and represents one of Central America’s largest remaining wilderness areas. In 2007, Doug Woodhams, a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, tested 49 frogs at a site bordering the Darien. At that time, none tested positive for the disease. In January 2010, however, Woodhams found that 2 percent of the 93 frogs he tested were infected.

Image right: Female Pirre harlequin frog (Photo by Brian Gratwicke)

The Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project has already established captive assurance colonies in Panama of two priority species endemic to the Darien—the Pirre harlequin frog (Atelopus glyphus) and the Toad Mountain harlequin frog (A. certus). In addition, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo maintains an active breeding program for the critically endangered Panamanian golden frog, which is Panama’s national animal.

“We would like to be moving faster to build capacity,” Gratwicke said. “One of our major hurdles is fundraising to build a facility to house these frogs. Until we jump that hurdle, we’re limited in our capacity to take in additional species.”

Nearly one-third of the world’s amphibian species are at risk of extinction. While the global amphibian crisis is the result of habitat loss, climate change and pollution, chytridiomycosis is at least partly responsible for the disappearances of 94 of the 120 frog species thought to have gone extinct since 1980.

“We are all working around the clock to find a cure,” Gratwicke said.

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The Global Amphibian Blitz is a new partnership between the University of California, Berkeley’s AmphibiaWeb, a comprehensive database of the world’s nearly 7,000 amphibians; Amphibian Ark; the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute; the Amphibian Specialist Group of the Species Survival Commission, which is part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature; the Center for Biological Diversity; and iNaturalist.org, a Bay Area social network for naturalists. (Click video below to learn more)

The website allows amateur naturalists from around the world to submit their amphibian photographs along with dates and GPS locations. The project is curated by a team of scientists who will identify and filter the submissions in search of rare species or out-of-range occurrences of interest to the scientific and conservation communities.

“The distributions of many amphibian species are so poorly known that every observation helps,” said herpetologist Michelle Koo, a UC Berkeley research scientist who helps manage AmphibiaWeb, which is hosted by the campus’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

Image right: A red-eyed tree frog (Smithsonian National Zoological Park)

Amphibians around the world are disappearing at a rapid rate, said iNaturalist co-director Scott Loarie, who is a post-doctoral fellow in the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University. Recent estimates suggest that nearly one-third of all amphibians – some 2,000 species – are threatened with extinction. In the last two decades alone, nearly 168 species are thought to have gone extinct.

With increasing land use and climate change around the world, these trends are likely to worsen, Loarie said. To better understand and conserve these diverse and fascinating creatures, museums are looking for new ways to efficiently collect large quantities of information on where amphibians persist.

“The collaboration between the amateur and scientific communities is what makes this project unique and exciting,’ he said. ‘We’re not asking amateur naturalists to provide expert identifications – that’s for the scientific community to do. But by being in the right place at the right time and armed with a camera, amateurs can provide information that scientists could never dream of collecting on their own.’

“This is a social networking site for naturalists and a way to pool and share observations about the natural world for a common cause,” Ueda said. “Anyone can start a project, whether it’s counting crows nesting in San Francisco or amphibians around the world, or even keeping track of raccoons eating garbage in your neighborhood.”

Global Amphibian Blitz, the first partnership between iNaturalist and a museum, hopes eventually to census every one of the world’s surviving amphibian species, which AmphibiaWeb counts this week as 6,813.–Source: University of California, Berkeley.

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