TAMPA, Fla. — ZooTampa officials are working to save Panamanian golden frogs, which have been extinct in the wild since 2009.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums manages a species survival plan where zoos across the United States work to save the population of frogs by breeding them.
Dan Costell is the curator of reptiles at ZooTampa. He showed us a golden frog and the unique pattern on their backs.
"It's kind of like our fingerprints. Everybody's fingerprints are different so these patterns on their back are different and no two are the same," said Costell.
Costell controls the environment to mimic what the frogs would experience in the wild.
"We're going into the rainy season so we're coming into the rainy season here and in Panama. We've got an automatic mist system set up for them. We'll up the mist times for them each day. As we go through the year, we heat it up in here a little bit. We dry them out a little bit," said Costell.
A fungus dangerous to amphibians called chytrid led to the extinction of the golden frog in Panama.
"The chytrid fungus, it's a naturally occurring fungus," he said. "And what the fungus does is it attaches to the skin of the frog and inhibits them from absorbing moisture through their skin. Frogs drink by absorbing water through their skin so when they can't do that, they dry out and they die."
Costell said the breeding program has been successful at the zoo.
"We've been so successful with our program. We have the second largest population of golden frogs in the United States right now. So, Baltimore has beat us out and they're the ones who started this program so they should beat us out," he said.
Costell said golden frogs are part of the circle of life and are necessary for the ecosystem in Panama.
"These guys are not only eating pests and devouring pests and keeping them under control, but they're also food for other animals so what else is starving out there if these guys aren't living," he said.
Costell said efforts to release these frogs back into the wild have not yet been successful, but he hopes someday that changes.
"It's going to be a long time. It could be ten years, could be 100 years, but there's no cure for the fungus right now."
