The fate of the harlequin toads – help through a synchronous multi-disciplinary approach and the IUCN ‘Amphibian Conservation Action Plan’?

Abstract

This is a small synopsis of the current threat with extinction of an entire species-rich genus of neotropical toad. Nowadays, 62 of 77 described species in the genus Atelopus are allocated to the IUCN Red List category Critically Endangered. Three are extinct while a total of 30 species is considered as possibly extinct. Extinctions in Atelopus are ‘enigmatic’, happening over short time and generally for unknown reasons including remote areas. There is strong evidence that most extinctions undergo due to a combination of chytridiomycosis (an apparently emerging infectious disease caused through an epizootic fungus) and global warming. A synchronous multi-disciplinary approach – i.e. basically taxonomic, disease and other research plus monitoring, captive breeding and habitat protection – is suggested to amend survival chances of Atelopus species. Such an approach needs novel law, policy and conservation frameworks, as pointed out in the IUCN ‘Amphibian Conservation Action Plan’. The latter is still not entirely put into practice. The future will show if it will help to prevent at least some harlequin toads from extinction. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)