New Zealand’s Department of Conservation is facing criticism over its plans to use a controversial poison in the habitat of two unique and endangered frog species.

Archey’s frog, an unusual and unique New Zealand frog

The poison, known as 1080, is used in New Zealand to eradicate invasive mammals such as possums, rats and stoats, which threaten the country’s native wildlife. Initially developed as an insecticide, 1080 naturally biodegrades in the environment over time and eventually becomes harmless. However, it is highly toxic and has no antidote, and many countries have banned its use.

New Zealand uses 80 to 90% of the world’s 1080, aerially dropping bait laced with the poison. Its use is highly controversial, with critics claiming that it can also kill native species such as birds and frogs.

Unique frogs

The Department of Conservation (DOC) plans to use 1080 on Moehau Mountain, on New Zealand’s North Island. However, one of the main concerns about the planned drop is the potential effects it could have on two unique and endangered frog species, Archey’s frog and Hochstetter’s frog.

Hochstetter’s frog is another primitive and unique frog found only in New Zealand

One of only a few surviving species from an ancient frog family, Archey’s frog is considered a ‘living fossil’, with primitive features such as a lack of eardrums or vocal sacs, and muscles to move a tail despite the frog having no tail to move. Unfortunately, this unusual frog is under threat from predation by non-native mammals and by the deadly amphibian disease chytridiomycosis, and is now considered to be Critically Endangered.

Hochstetter’s frog is also a primitive and unique species, and is found in just ten fragmented and isolated populations. Listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, it is under threat from chytridiomycosis as well as the destruction of its habitat.

Unclear impacts

It is not known for certain whether 1080 has any impact on frogs. The DOC says that the poison has been used previously in areas of frog habitat and that rather than harming the frogs, it has benefitted them by removing predatory mammals.

“Last year DOC started a controlled experiment in the Whareorino forest and dropped 1080 in an area where the frogs (Archey’s and Hochstetter’s) had been well monitored and excluded it from another well-monitored area,” said Phil Bishop, a scientist at the University of Otago. “The data has yet to be fully analysed as its still early days and still being collected, but the results are looking good and the frogs seem to be doing as well if not better in the area that received the 1080 drop.”

The common brushtail possum has been introduced to New Zealand, where it is threatening native wildlife

However, others believe that insects may feed on the poisoned bait, and the frogs may therefore ingest the poison when they eat the insects. There are also fears that 1080 could have less direct impacts, with chronic exposure to the poison potentially making the amphibians more vulnerable to disease or affecting their circulatory or nervous systems. This adds to a growing body of research worldwide showing that the non-lethal effects of pesticides can cause considerable harm to wildlife and humans.

Further fears

There is also concern that native birds could be affected by 1080, although others point out that this threat is outweighed by the benefits to the birds of removing non-native predators. Local people are also concerned for the safety of livestock and pets, with dogs being particularly vulnerable to the lethal effects of the chemical.

Some opponents argue that safer, less controversial pest control measures could be used, and accuse the government of self-interest as they own the factory which produces the 1080 pellets.

Archey’s frog is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List

“Invasive pest mammals comprise an obvious threat to New Zealand biodiversity. But to dismiss out of hand suggestions that 1080 might harm native species through sublethal physiological effects and thereby contribute to long-term population declines is just foolish,” said Bruce Waldman, an expert on New Zealand’s frogs. “Until we know why Archey’s frogs are dying… we cannot just proceed on the assumption that dangers that they incur by exposure to 1080 drops have been sufficiently mitigated. To do proper studies on 1080′s effects on frogs would not be difficult, so why have they not been done?”

Despite the controversy, the DOC has stated that the poison bait drop is still to go ahead, with the aim of saving native frogs and birds from invasive predators.

Read more on this story at Mongabay – Saviors or villains: controversy erupts as New Zealand plans to drop poison over Critically Endangered frog habitat.

View photos and videos of amphibian species on ARKive and find out more about endangered amphibians at EDGE of Existence – Amphibians.

Find out more about amphibian conservation on ARKive.

Liz Shaw, ARKive Text Author

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With Easter just a hop, skip and a jump away, and with Channel 4’s fascinating new Easter Eggs Live show catching our attention, we thought we’d crack into the ARKive coll-egg-tion and have a scramble around to eggs-tract some egg-citing eggs to eggs-hibit in our blog. Along the way, we’ve also learned about the eggs-istence of some rather eggs-centric egg-laying and guarding habits, and we hope you’re as eggs-tatic about our finds as we are!

Gooseberry fool?

Peacock butterfly eggs look a lot like gooseberries!

While you might be forgiven for being fooled into thinking that these green globules are plump and juicy gooseberries, they are, in fact, peacock butterfly eggs. The eggs of this species are laid in groups under nettles, usually in May, and hatch two weeks later.

Sunny-side up? Over-easy? Well-done?

Emu eggs come in various shades of greenish-black

However you like your eggs, there’s no denying that these ones look as though they’ve been char-grilled in their shells! But fear not, these emu eggs are supposed to look like this; they come in various shades of greenish-black and are the size of a small grapefruit. The male emu is an eggs-traordinary guardian, taking sole responsibility for incubating the eggs over the course of two months while the female wanders off to potentially find another mate, and protecting the chicks against predators for several months once they’ve hatched.

100 kids and counting…

Green turtles can lay an impressive number of eggs per nesting season

In the UK, having more than about four siblings would constitute being part of a pretty large and impressive family, but in the world of marine turtles, this is a mere drop in the ocean. Female green turtles produce between 100 and 150 ping-pong-ball-like eggs per clutch, and can lay up to nine separate clutches per breeding season. While this may seem rather a lot, marine turtles don’t guard their nests or look after their young, and with the threat of land- and ocean-dwelling predators, the survival rate of hatchlings is very low.

High-flying hunger games…

Bald eagle nests are some of the largest of any bird species

Bald eagle nests, made with sticks and lined with moss, grass, seaweed and other vegetation, are some of the largest of any bird species, sometimes reaching several metres in width. These enormous nests presumably provide a comfy and snug environment for the eggs during the 35-day incubation period, yet things can soon turn ugly. By being bigger and louder, the first-born chick is often afforded more parental attention and food, and will even occasionally kill its younger siblings.

Treasures of the deep

Shark eggs, such as this California horn shark egg, are often referred to as ‘mermaid’s purses’

A mermaid’s purse might well sound like something a sea-dwelling siren would keep her money and credit cards in, but a pilfering pickpocket could get a nasty surprise if they were to try to purloin this particular purse as it is actually a shark egg-case! Mermaid’s purses vary greatly in shape, size and colour, depending on the shark species in question.

Eggs-panding eggs

Common frog eggs are coated in a jelly-like substance

Frog egg masses, often referred to as frogspawn, tend to look rather like a gruesome collection of eyeballs. The female common frog releases between 1,000 and 2,000 eggs at a time, which are covered in a jelly-like coating. This coating expands when it comes into contact with water, providing protection for the tadpoles growing within.

Egg pasta

Pasta del mar – sea lemons produce somewhat pasta-like egg masses

What may look like a delectable strand of abandoned tagliatelle cast into the depths of the ocean is, in actual fact, a mass of sea lemon eggs. A common sea slug around Britain’s shores, the sea lemon produces thousands of eggs at a time which form a long, coiled, ribbon-like mass. These egg masses are produced in the spring and are attached to rocks, so if you take an Easter weekend dip in the sea and find such a structure, we would advise leaving it well alone and not adding it to your carbonara!

Ha-bee Easter!

Honey bee egg

A supplier of sugary goodness and a harbinger of spring to many, the honey bee lays its eggs from March to October. Honey bee colonies have a complex structure, formed of the queen, workers and drones, all of which serve different functions. Worker bees have a variety of roles within the colony, with some being tasked with feeding the developing larvae which emerge from the eggs around three days after they are laid.

Eggshellent parenting

King penguins incubate their egg on their feet

King penguins appear to take parenting very seriously, with each pair keeping a close eye on their precious egg. Incubation is shared by the male and female and is split into two- or three-week cycles, and parental duties remain shared once the chick has hatched. It’s a good job that king penguins don’t let their eggs out of their sight, otherwise they may not believe the chick belonged to them…the chick looks so different to the adult that they were first described as two completely different species!

Eggs-treme monotreme

A short-beaked echidna egg

While the majority of mammals give birth to live young, there are some eggs-treme mammalian species that lay eggs! These eggs-tra special critters are known as monotremes, and the short-beaked echidna is one of them. The echidna’s leathery egg is laid into a pouch on the female’s abdomen, where it is incubated for about ten days before it hatches. The young echidna, or ‘puggle’, remains there until it is 45 to 55 days old.

We hope you’ve enjoyed these eggs-amples of awesome eggs, and that you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!

To watch some incredible scenes of eggs from a wide variety of species hatching live, don’t forget to check out Easter Eggs Live online and tune in to Channel 4 at 8pm on Sunday 31^st March and Monday 1^st April for some more riveting reports and fascinating footage!

Kathryn Pintus, ARKive Text Author

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Scientists in Australia have successfully cloned embryos of a unique but extinct species of frog that gives birth through its mouth.

Gastric brooder

The subject of this ground-breaking research is the southern gastric-brooding frog, also known as the platypus frog, one of only two known amphibian species that swallows its eggs and broods its young in its stomach. Following this remarkable behaviour, this strange amphibian, once a native of Australia’s rainforests, would then give birth through its mouth.

Unfortunately, this intriguing amphibian species went extinct in 1983, although the reasons for its disappearance remain unclear, with loss of habitat, pollution and parasites all being put forward as possible causes. This new and exciting research by scientists at the University of Newcastle, Australia, has sparked the possibility that this unusual species, once thought lost forever, could exist once again.

The southern gastric-brooding frog went extinct in the 1980s

Lazarus Project

The team of researchers on the aptly named ‘Lazarus Project’ were able to recover cell nuclei from samples of frozen frog tissue which had been collected in the 1970s. These nuclei were then implanted into fresh eggs from a related, extant frog species, the great barred frog, after which some of the eggs developed into an early embryo stage. Although none of these embryos survived for longer than a few days, the results are both ground-breaking and encouraging, with the scientists believing that this research could eventually lead to the resurrection of the extinct frog.

“We are watching Lazarus arise from the dead, step by exciting step,” said University of New South Wales Professor Mike Archer, leader of the Lazarus Project. “We’ve reactivated dead cells into living ones and revived the extinct frog’s genome in the process. Now we have fresh cryo-preserved cells of the extinct frog to use in future cloning experiments.”

The golden toad is also thought to have gone extinct in the 1980s

Archer and his team are confident that the hurdles faced by the Lazarus Project are technological and not biological, and that the project will ultimately be successful.

“Importantly, we’ve demonstrated already the great promise this technology has as a conservation tool when hundreds of the world’s amphibian species are in catastrophic decline,” he said.

While bringing a biological curiosity back to life would, in itself, be a remarkable and exciting achievement, the work being carried out may also have wider-reaching implications. The southern gastric-brooding frog’s ability to shut down the secretion of its digestive acids has long fascinated scientists, and further research into this incredible trait could prove useful in developing treatments for gastric ulcers in humans.

The cloning of the southern gastric-brooding frog was announced a few days ago at the TEDx DeExtinction event in Washington, DC, which was attended by researchers from across the globe working towards resurrecting other extinct species including the woolly mammoth, dodo, Cuban red macaw and New Zealand’s giant moa.

Read more on this story at abc News – Frog that gives birth through mouth to be brought back from extinction and Mongabay – Scientists clone extinct frog that births young from its mouth.

View photos and videos of the southern gastric-brooding frog on ARKive.

Kathryn Pintus, ARKive Text Author

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Team WILD, an elite squadron of science superheroes, needs your help! Your mission: to protect and conserve the planet’s species and habitats from destruction. Are you ready for the challenge?

From jungle to savannah, rainforests to coral reefs, help Team WILD monitor, survey and conserve. Discover the different types of field tasks a conservation scientist or ecologist must do in order to protect the world’s species and habitats, from the replanting of native guapuruvu trees in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil to the rescue and evacuation of non-infected mountain chickens (a frog) from Montserrat, where populations are being decimated by the deadly chytrid fungus.

Test your speed, skill and determination and see whether you’ve got what it takes to join this legion of science superheroes…

The Team WILD missions…

  Save the mountain chicken from a deadly disease in Montserrat

A deadly fungus is destroying the world’s amphibian populations. Team WILD needs to collect uninfected mountain chickens (a frog) to breed them and ensure the survival of the species.

Captive breeding in bio-secure breeding facilities and re-introduction of the mountain chicken is the best hope for its survival.

Conserving coral reefs in the Chagos Archipelago

Scientists need to monitor coral reefs to make sure climate change and other threats such as overfishing or sedimentation are not having a negative effect on reef health.

Join Team WILD’s elite task force of divers to help survey the health of coral reefs in the Chagos Archipelago.

Reforestation in the Atlantic forest, Brazil

Team WILD needs help combating deforestation in Brazil. No tropical ecosystem has suffered as much loss as the Atlantic Forest, making reforestation projects here very important.

Over 90% of the Atlantic  forest has already been destroyed, so the team must act fast to replant native tree species, such as the guapuruvu tree.

Surveying predator-prey relationships in the African savannah

Scientists study predator-prey relationships to help understand what might cause population changes over time.

Team WILD needs you on an important mission to help determine the relationships between predators and prey in the African savannah.

Are you a teacher? Find out how you can use Team WILD in the classroom.

Meet Team WILD’s science superheroes…

 ROOT is a true radical. A research scientist to the core, he is nature’s ultimate guardian warrior. He’s also wildly cool.

A world-leading botanist, FLORA has a bit of a wild streak.She lets nothing stand in her way when solving the murkiest of scientific mysteries.

Play Team WILD!

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Rabb’s fringe-limbed treefrog (Ecnomiohyla rabborum)

Species: Rabb’s fringe-limbed treefrog (Ecnomiohyla rabborum)

Status: Critically Endangered (CR)

Interesting Fact: Rabb’s fringe-limbed treefrog was first discovered in 2005 and only formally described as a new species in 2008.

Rabb’s fringe-limbed treefrog is known only from forest habitats in a small area of central Panama. This large frog has substantial webbing on its hands and feet, large discs at the ends of its fingers and toes, and fringes of skin along the outer margins of its forearms and feet. Remarkably, Rabb’s fringe-limbed treefrog is able to leap from the forest canopy and use its outstretched limbs and webbing to glide safely to the ground. This species is active at night and feeds on a variety of insects. Male Rabb’s fringe-limbed treefrogs call to defend water-filled tree holes, where the females come to lay their eggs. The male then guards the eggs and tadpoles, and is even thought to let the tadpoles feed on flecks of his skin.

Sadly, since the discovery of Rabb’s fringe-limbed treefrog, the arrival of the fungal disease chytridiomycosis is believed to have driven the species to extinction in the wild. Attempts to collect individuals for captive breeding have been unsuccessful, and a single remaining Rabb’s fringe-limbed treefrog at the Atlanta Botanical Garden is now believed to be the very last of its kind.

Find out more about Rabb’s fringe-limbed treefrog at Zoo Atlanta.

See more images Rabb’s fringe-limbed treefrog on ARKive.

Liz Shaw, ARKive Text Author

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