Giant Japanese Salamander news

[blasphemusfish]

There are several species of amphibians worldwide being threatened by Chytrid fungus.

"Chytrid fungi were long thought to be predominantly free-living saprophytes, with a few species capable of infecting only invertebrates and vascular plants. However, in 1999 a new species - Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (hereafter Bd) - was described infecting

Comments

[owlsie]

this is sad, because amphibians esp. frogs are one of my favorite animals.

"And those bacteria might be able to be transplanted to other species that can't fight off the fungus."

Is it right to mess with wild species like that though? What is evolution for if we go around fixing everything that runs into trouble.

[blasphemusfish]

Eh we caused the problems in the first place.

[owlsie]

A lot of problems were caused by people trying to 'fix' nature too 6__9 like the cane toads.
oh well.

[blasphemusfish]

They weren't even trying to fix nature, just nature had taken advantage of crops etc (hey look an unnaturally huge pile of free food, let's reproduce fellow beetles/other pest species :D) and we couldn't have that.

I'd be all for a solution that is actually directed at fixing the problem, with the interests of wildlife in mind, rather than for human selfishness.

[owlsie]

good points :]

[i_id]

But what's that bacteria going to do to benign local fungi?

[blasphemusfish]

Well, the spread of it to places with species unable to cope with it, I mean.