Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project

If El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center is a frog lover’s heaven, then Edgardo Griffith and Heidi Ross are the center’s angels. With more than 60 frog species at the facility, more commonly known as EVACC, I was spellbound, moving from tank to tank like a kid in a candy store. From the horned marsupial frog (Gastrotheca cornuta) to the crowned tree frog (Anotheca spinosa), each animal was sweeter than the next.

Brian Gratwicke, the project’s international coordinator, and Jeff Coulter, a project volunteer, and I drove the two hours yesterday from Summit Zoo to western Panama to visit EVACC. EVACC acts as another ark as part of the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project, housing about 10 of the rescue project’s priority species.

With only one other person to help them, Edgardo and Heidi care for all of the frogs on their own, every day of the week. While I was running around trying to say hello to each frog, they were moving through spot checks and misting the tanks, pausing only to proudly show me the newest tadpoles or metamorphs among the crew. The two biologists live for frogs—they have a car painted like a Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) and a toilet top with the same pattern.

These are my kind of people!

Edgardo and Heidi’s outward love of these frogs is also a symbol of just how valuable a treasure they have at EVACC. The center houses the only population of Panamanian golden frogs—the country’s national animal—left in Panama. Panamanian golden frogs are extinct in the wild, found only in captivity at EVACC and a number of zoos and aquaria in the United States. Yet Panama still celebrates the golden frog and markets are filled with statues and artwork aimed at capturing these animals’ beauty. My suitcase will be overflowing on my trip back to the United States tomorrow.

I was reminded last night of how revered Panamanian golden frogs are in their native country when the owners of the restaurant we were at came out and offered us free cocktails and dessert in gratitude of the work that Heidi and Edgardo do at EVACC. To be part of a society for a week that actively cherishes frogs is something that I get to carry with me to the United States, where I aim to inspire the same type of interest in the rescue project.

I will also carry with me the memory of our hike today up to the top of Sleeping Indian Mountain in El Valle. Brian told me that this spot would have once been teaming with Panamanian golden frogs, lined up and down the sides of the stream. I didn’t see a single frog on the five-hour hike today, in fact, though Brian says that there are red-eyed tree frogs and tungara frogs a-plenty. I would imagine that such a sight today would be far more heartbreaking for anyone who remembers what it should be like and is faced with the grim reality. While I didn’t get to spot any golden frogs in the wild myself, I’m proud to be part of a project that could be responsible for filling the streams with gold once again someday.

–Lindsay Renick Mayer, Smithsonian’s National Zoo

Anyone who’s been out in the woods at night has heard the call of a frog. Sometimes it’s from a female to a nearby male looking for some romance. Sometimes it’s from a whole camp of males hoping to impress a very picky female. After just a few days in the Panamanian rainforest, I have learned to identify the call of the tungara frog (and can hear one out my window right now), the gladiator frog and the red-eyed tree frog. I’m still working on learning the many other big noises that come from these small creatures.

Although the sounds that frogs make are as varied as the animals themselves, there’s one thing frogs can’t do: talk. That’s where I come in.

Frogs have an important story to tell. It’s one about a fungus that is wiping out their kind worldwide and spreading rapidly. It’s one about those among the Earth’s most powerful species who are doing something to save the animals and it’s about those who don’t much care. Through the frogs’ eyes, it’s a story that has evolved along with the planet since the time of the dinosaurs and a story that still has a very uncertain ending.

The frogs at Summit Zoo were able to tell their story to a reporter who came to visit today and my job—the conservation action that I have to offer—is to ensure that reporters help get the word out and that we connect with as many people as possible in Panama, the States and, well, everywhere else. We need people to care and then we need people to take action. We need this to happen very quickly, before chytrid spreads to those places that are home to the rescue priority species we’re still trying to make room for.

Right now we’re already pushing capacity with the newbie Pirre Mountain frogs (Atelopus glyphus) in quarantine, awaiting their turn to re-locate to a rescue pod. But their rescue pod still looks more like what it was originally created to be—a shipping container.

Outfitting the pods for the frogs takes a tremendous amount of work. Once we receive the shipping industry’s donation, we need to turn it into an ark by setting up life support systems, from air conditioning to filtration to lighting. This week it took me two hours to make just three false bottoms (tank bottoms that prevent the frog from escaping through a filtration pipe) and about an hour to put together about 20 lights. Really we’re just doing this one or two people at a time.

This takes time and this takes money. Thanks to a grant from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee, the rescue project was able to hire someone to coordinate and recruit volunteers—and volunteers are essential to building capacity we need.

So my shameless plug in the midst of a week of being nothing but frog mad: If you want to be among the good guys in the story of the frogs, come to Panama to volunteer. Or donate money. Or help with the campaign we’ll be announcing next week. Or just do whatever you can to help us spread the word, whether on Facebook, Twitter or at your next dinner party. When the words stop, so, too, will the frog calls.

And that’s a silence I don’t think the world can bear.

–Lindsay Renick Mayer, Smithsonian’s National Zoo

There’s something almost sublime about her and it’s not just the way we angle the light during her photo shoots. She’s of the highland variation of Atelopus limosus, a harlequin frog from Cerro Brewster, and she happens to be the only female of her kind that we’ve got in captivity.

Talk about pressure.

Before I left for Panama, I already knew about her and to be honest, to be perfectly honest, she was the frog at Summit Zoo I was most looking forward to meeting. I’m not sure what I expected. She’s certainly a beauty, but in my opinion, most frogs are. Did I expect her to indicate, in some way, that she understands the significance of her position in the Universe? And if I did, what did I expect that sign to look like? A knowing nod? A regal posture upon a bromeliad? An extra quick flick of the tongue?

What I do know is that every time I’ve had to open her tank over the last few days, to clean it or to take her photo, my heart has started racing. I imagine her escaping, getting hurt or getting lost, and taking with her the possibility that the rescue project will be able to save these dark brown frogs with striking green chevrons. The frog keepers at Summit Zoo must feel the weight of this responsibility every day with every frog in their care. I’m not sure I could handle the gravity of that responsibility with the same level of grace that I’ve seen in them.

The reality, of course, is that one female isn’t going to be enough to build a genetically diverse population of these frogs. She was one of the frogs the project collected last year from Cerro Brewster in Panama’s Chagres National Park, where chytrid had spread rapidly, surprising (and, I think, momentarily devastating) our researchers who had hoped to beat the wave of the disease there. We haven’t stopped the search and we hope to find more females to add to our ark early next year.

Hope is really what drives the project. And really, how can it not? The situation may be dire, but there’s a song of hope in the call of one of the project’s male Harlequin frogs of the lowland variation in a tank in the middle of the rescue pod. There’s hope in the adorable adolescent Toad Mountain harlequin frogs (Atelopus certus) in tanks at the front of the pod. There’s hope in the far end of the rescue pod where a large tank holds what may be hundreds of tadpoles—a first for the rescue project. The tadpoles are not the highland variation of the harlequin frog, but the lowland variation, which is less threatened than their more colorful counterparts. Still, each step toward successful breeding marks a victory for us and provides an encouraging boost.

And perhaps that is what accounts for the sole female Harlequin frog’s seemingly ethereal beauty: in part because of her, we still have plenty of hope.

–Lindsay Renick Mayer, Smithsonian’s National Zoo

The night quest—it’s not quite the childhood sport I remember. Sure, your heart is thumping rapidly and you–the frogger–have only moments to figure out the most effective way to wrap your hands around the frog without letting it escape. And when you finally do get your hands around him, you’re spellbound by the feeling of the animal perched there. But I had never actually caught frogs at night as a kid and in the first 24 hours here I’ve found myself on two nighttime frog hunts in the rainforest—one within hours of my plane touching down.

Hello, little frog. I flew 2,071 miles today just to meet you!

During Saturday night’s excursion, I held a red-eyed tree frog in my hand, watched as two tungara frogs in amplexus whipped up a froth of eggs, spotted more than one cane toad and got a good look at the hourglass pattern on the aptly named hourglass frog. Even before I laid eyes on a frog, though, I was swept up in the sounds of a richly diverse world. The chucking of the tungura frogs calling to mates, the chirping of the red-eyed tree frog as air pushes through its larynx. If these are the prima divas (and divos) in the opera of the natural world, then the insects are definitely the orchestra.

We also ran into a Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute frog researcher in the forest. As I understand it, he was studying what combination of sounds and vibrations elicit a response—vocal and physical—from a potential mate. With his camera, we were able to see the world through infrared, including an unknowing red-eyed tree frog who looked eerily supernatural through this lens.

Last night’s excursion was a little different. Certainly more muddy and wet. My first spotting was of a pair of tungura frogs in amplexus. We collected them for a photo shoot before setting them free this morning. We also tracked down two red-eyed tree frogs by following their sound, standing under the tree that seemed to be making all the noise and peering up into the branches as two pairs of big red eyes peered back down at us. Perhaps my favorite discovery of the night was a gladiator frog the size of the palm of my hand. We didn’t collect this guy, but we did spend some time taking beauty shots of him. And oh how beautiful he was.

What is so markedly different about my hunt for frogs now, as an adult, is the feeling of gratitude and relief that I experience each time I see a frog in the wild. Relief that I am in the presence of a living, presumably healthy animal that doesn’t yet need an ark to survive the wave of chytrid in the way many of the highland species do. And relief that even though as an adult I am cursed with the ability to understand just how grave the situation is for amphibians, I am blessed to be part of a project that aims to ensure a biodiverse world for the next few generations of froggers looking for a good night quest.

-Lindsay Renick Mayer, Smithsonian’s National Zoo

There is the distinct possibility that, lately, my family and friends all think that I’ve gone mad. Frog mad. My Facebook posts are almost exclusively photos of frogs and frog-related news. When someone at a party asks me what’s happening, I’m likely to launch into a lecture about how we need to alter a value system gone awry in order to save frogs. My partner can’t get through the door of our apartment before I pull out my favorite frog photo of the day to show off. And today I’m headed to Panama, where I will work with some of the most beautiful treasures our planet has to offer—and to meet the heroes trying to save them in a world where one species is too dangerously preoccupied to pay much heed to others.

The truth is that I took to frogs early on, learning as a kid to catch bullfrogs in a nearby pond with my bare hands and racing frogs against my sister’s toads on camping trips. But it wasn’t until I started my job at the National Zoo and became a part of the communicatinos team for this rescue project that the interest was re-ignited—and now the passion is yet again aflame.

There’s more to it than a personal fascination with these animals. Somewhere in the detour from my childhood love, I lost my sense of connection to my home—the Earth—and all of the creatures I share with it. Like so many others, I let the very planet that sustains me slip from under me, feeling powerless among the extinctions and oil spills and burgeoning levels of pollution. My interest in frogs is the barometer by which I measure my connection to nature and my willingness to be a fierce steward of its health.

To a large extent, although many animals need our help, humankind’s effort to conserve amphibians is the barometer by which I measure the health of our values, as they relate to Mother Nature. How can we be responsible citizens of the world if we ignore the largest extinction event since the time of the dinosaurs? How can we not cherish a planet that offers a world so markedly different from those that neighbor us in the solar system and beyond? How can we not feel privileged to be the species with the power to protect all others?

Plus, frogs are just dang cool, from the golden poison frog that can make you numb just by perching nearby (they don’t call him Phyllobates terribilis for nothing!); to the lemur leaf frog who can rival any puppy in cuteness; to the Panamanian golden frog, who waves to potential mates—or even, perhaps, just to greet one another. The biodiversity in the frog world alone is one of the natural world’s gifts that we should celebrate and marvel at.

Today I head to a country that is rapidly losing this part of its natural beauty, like so many other places around the world. For the week I get to be among that beauty, to lend the rescue mission my words, fueled by my childhood passion. A week to be nothing but frog mad.

More dispatches to come throughout the week.

–Lindsay Renick Mayer, Smithsonian’s National Zoo

The recent discovery of what may be three new frog species by researchers in Panama illustrates the hope and fear encountered daily by the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project. The discoveries lead to hope that project researchers can save these animals from a deadly fungus killing frogs worldwide and the fear that many species will go extinct before scientists even know they exist.

“It is disturbing to witness the disappearance of species that some of us only recently described and even more devastating to lose those we know are probably new species,” said Roberto Ibáñez, local director of the project and a scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, one of nine project partners. “Scientists are just starting to investigate the ecological impact of the loss of amphibians, and while we’re aiming to preserve some of these species, we already know it will be impossible to save them all.”

Nearly one-third of all amphibian species globally are at the risk of going extinct. The rescue project aims to save more than 20 species of frogs in Panama, which is one of the world’s last strongholds for amphibian biodiversity. While the global amphibian crisis is the result of habitat loss, climate change and pollution, the deadly amphibian chytrid fungus is likely at least partly responsible for the disappearances of 94 of the 120 frog species that are thought to have gone extinct since 1980. 

Although it can take years to determine that a species is new to science, project researchers have identified some telltale signs indicating that the three species found in eastern Panama are, indeed, new. The first two are rain frogs from the genus Pristimantis. One of these species has a bright red stomach that is uncharacteristic for rain frogs, earning it the nickname “red tomato.” The second species is much larger than any known Pristimantis in the region. The third frog species appears to be a robber frog, genus Craugastor, but unique skin folds on its arms and feet distinguish it from other closely related species. Robber frogs are especially susceptible to chytrid.

“We are doing our best to salvage what we can, but we are in urgent need of funding to build capacity in Panama to house all of these chytrid refugees,” said Brian Gratwicke, a National Zoo research biologist and the international coordinator for the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project. “The species is the basic unit of conservation, so these discoveries are rewarding, but that comes with the daunting responsibility of deciding how we look after them. We already have a huge job, and it just gets bigger with every discovery.”

Now project scientists will use collections of frogs from the same region at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum and elsewhere to determine if these species are genuinely new or if they have already been discovered (or “described”) elsewhere. The project has also collected tissue sample to use DNA testing to map out the animals’ closest genetic relatives.

“Finding a new species is like discovering a new Pablo Picasso,” said Gratwicke. “Each species is a priceless creation painted with the brushstrokes of natural selection on the canvas of DNA and has something of value to offer. We might not know how they’re valuable to us right now, but if they go extinct, we lose the opportunity to learn what secrets they hold.”

The mission of the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project is to rescue amphibian species that are in extreme danger of extinction throughout Panama. The project’s efforts and expertise are focused on establishing assurance colonies and developing methodologies to reduce the impact of the amphibian chytrid fungus so that one day captive amphibians may be re-introduced to the wild. Project participants include Africam Safari, Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Defenders of Wildlife, El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center, Houston Zoo, Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Summit Municipal Park and Zoo New England. 

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Contact: Lindsay Renick Mayer, Public Affairs Specialist, Smithsonian’s National Zoo (202-633-3081)

Keep an open eye in Panama and you might just see a Panamanian Golden Frog. Local legend used to promise luck to anyone who spotted the frog in the wild and that when the frog died, it would turn into a gold talisman, known as a huaca. Nowadays, you’ll see the frogs on decorative cloth molas made by the Kuna Indians, on T-shirts, as inlaid design on a new overpass in Panama City and even on lottery tickets. In the market at El Valle de Antòn, you will see them by the thousands either as enamel-painted terracotta or on hand-carved tagua nuts. The one place you probably won’t see a Panamanian Golden Frog, however, is in their native home—the crystal clear streams of the ancient volcanic crater of El Valle de Antòn. In the mountain forests you may spot other similar-looking extant species such as Atelopus varius, but the only local and true Panamanian Golden Frogs Atelopus zeteki are those breeding in captivity at the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center (EVACC) at the El Nispero Zoo.

In the early 2000’s conservationists warned that this day-glo yellow emblem of Panama was in grave danger of extinction. In emergency response, Project Golden Frog was established to create captive assurance colonies of this species, just in case the scientists’ worst fears came to pass and the species went extinct in the wild. In 2006, just as the scientists had predicted, the chytridiomycosis disease hit El Valle. The Panamanian Golden Frog—whose populations were already under pressure due to collectors and habitat loss—was decimated. Suddenly, Panama’s unique harelquin frog species joined the ranks of at least 30 other harlequin frogs that are most likely extinct in the wild. Luckily, Panama’s charismatic namesake was part of an AZA Species Survival Plan. Today, the captive population is being carefully managed and bred for long-term survival by a number of zoos and aquaria in the United States and Panama. The animals in these assurance colonies have served their intended purpose and provide an insurance policy for the species, guaranteeing that this important Panamanian cultural symbol will never be lost all together.

A tragedy has thus been averted. Instead of a dire warning of the future fate of the planet, Panamanian Golden Frogs are now a symbol of hope. Exiled frogs are playing the role of a flagship species, bringing the story of global amphibian declines to world wide audiences in zoos and aquaria, magazines and films. As the logo of the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project, the Panamanian Golden Frog is a powerful symbol uniting 8 key institutions. Together, we have embarked on this ambitious national program to build capacity at the Summit Municipal Park in Panama and to create assurance colonies of other amphibian species from Eastern Panama before it is too late. We are also actively working with some of the world’s leading researchers like Reid Harris and Louise Rollins-Smith to develop a cure that will allow us to control the further spread of chytridiomycosis. Our great hope is that one day we may re-establish wild populations of Panamanian Golden Frogs back into their rightful home in the streams of El Valle. Until then, we embrace Panama’s living gold as a symbol of hope and achievement in showing us how we can preserve Panama’s amphibian biodiversity.

It’s difficult to communicate the extent of the amphibian crisis using only numbers. The 2008 global amphibian assessment lists 120 potentially extinct species and 39 extinct amphibian species. Of these, 94 had chytridiomycosis listed as a likely threat associated with their disappearance. Most of the missing species are from Central and South America, but we are also losing species from North America, the Caribbean, Australia, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.

Now let’s try and put those numbers into the context of our mammal-centric world. Think of a whole bunch of endangered mammals from around the world: a jaguar, Panthera onca, a Baird’s tapir, Tapirus bairdii, the golden lion tamarin, Leontopithecus rosalia, a mountain pygmy possum, Burramys parvus, Dama gazelle, Nanger dama, and the New Guinea big-eared bat, Pharotis imogene. Repeat that exercise 25 times, and you’ll have some idea of what we have probably already lost in the amphibian world.

Here is a roll-call of missing amphibians. Those marked with an (EX) are classified by the IUCN as extinct. Those with an asterisk * next to them have had chytridiomycosis suggested as one of the threats associated with their disappearance.

MISSING FROGS

Alytidae – Midwife Toads

1. Discoglossus nigriventer (EX)

Arombatidae

1. Aromobates nocturnus *

2. Mannophryne neblina*

3. Prostherapis dunni*

Bufonidae – True toads

1. Adenomus kandianus (EX)

2. Anaxyrus baxteri (EX in the wild)*

3. Andinophryne colomai

4. Atelopus arthuri*

5. Atelopus balios*

6. Atelopus carbonerensis*

7. Atelopus chiriquiensis*

8. Atelopus chrysocorallus*

9. Atelopus coynei*

10. Atelopus famelicus*

11. Atelopus guanujo*

12. Atelopus halihelos*

13. Atelopus ignescens (EX)*

14. Atelopus longirostris (EX)*

15. Atelopus lozanoi*

16. Atelopus lynchi *

17. Atelopus mindoensis*

18. Atelopus muisca*

19. Atelopus nanay*

20. Atelopus oxyrhynchus*

21. Atelopus pachydermus*

22. Atelopus peruensis*

23. Atelopus pinangoi*

24. Atelopus planispina*

25. Atelopus senex*

26. Atelopus sernai*

27. Atelopus sorianoi*

28. Atelopus vogli

29. Incilius fastidiosus*

30. Incilius holdridgei (EX)*

31. Incilius periglenes (EX)*

32. Melanophryniscus macrogranulosus

33. Nectophrynoides asperginis*

34. Peltophryne fluviatica

35. Rhinella rostrata

Centrolenidae – Glass frogs

1. Centrolene ballux*

2. Centrolene heloderma*

3. Hyalinobatrachium crybetes

Ceratophryidae – Horned frogs

1. Telmatobius cirrhacelis*

2. Telmatobius niger*

3. Telmatobius vellardi*

Cragastoridae

1. Craugastor anciano

2. Craugastor andi*

3. Craugastor angelicus*

4. Craugastor chrysozetetes (EX)*

5. Craugastor coffeus

6. Craugastor cruzi*

7. Craugastor emleni*

8. Craugastor escoces (EX)*

9. Craugastor fecundus*

10. Craugastor fleischmanni*

11. Craugastor guerreroensis*

12. Craugastor merendonensis*

13. Craugastor milesi (EX)**Population just rediscovered in Honduras (see comments)

14. Craugastor olanchano*

15. Craugastor omoaensis*

16. Craugastor polymniae*

17. Craugastor saltuarius*

18. Craugastor stadelmani*

19. Craugastor trachydermus*

Cryptobatrachidae

1. Cryptobatrachus nicefori

Cycloramphidae

1. Cycloramphus ohausi*

2. Odontophrynus moratoi

3. Rhinoderma rufum*

Dendrobatidae – Poison dart frogs

1. Colostethus jacobuspetersi

2. Hyloxalus edwardsi

3. Hyloxalus ruizi

4. Hyloxalus vertebralis*

5. Ranitomeya abdita*

Dicroglossidae

1. Nannophrys guentheri

Eleutherodactylidae – Neotropical frogs

1. Eleutherodactylus eneidae*

2. Eleutherodactylus glanduliferoides

3. Eleutherodactylus jasper*

4. Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti*

5. Eleutherodactylus orcutti*

6. Eleutherodactylus schmidti*

7. Eleutherodactylus semipalmatus*

Hylidae – Treefrogs

1. Bokermannohyla claresignata*

2. Bokermannohyla izecksohni

3. Bromeliohyla dendroscarta*

4. Charadrahyla altipotens*

5. Charadrahyla trux*

6. Ecnomiohyla echinata*

7. Hyla bocourti*

8. Hyloscirtus chlorosteus

9. Hypsiboas cymbalum*

10. Isthmohyla calypso*

11. Isthmohyla debilis*

12. Isthmohyla graceae*

13. Isthmohyla tica*

14. Litoria castanea* Breaking news – this has been rediscovered after 30 years!

15. Litoria lorica*

16. Litoria nyakalensis*

17. Litoria piperata*

18. Megastomatohyla pellita*

19. Plectrohyla calvicollina*

20. Plectrohyla celata*

21. Plectrohyla cembra*

22. Plectrohyla cyanomma*

23. Plectrohyla ephemera*

24. Plectrohyla hazelae*

25. Plectrohyla siopela*

26. Plectrohyla thorectes*

27. Phrynomedusa fimbriata (EX)

28. Scinax heyeri*

Hemiphractidae – Marsupial frogs

1. Gastrotheca lauzuricae

Hylodidae

1. Crossodactylus trachystomus

Leptodactylidae – Southern frogs

1. Paratelmatobius mantiqueira*

Megophryidae – Asian toadfrogs

1. Scutiger maculatus

Myobatrachidae – Australian toadlets and waterfrogs

1. Taudactylus acutirostris*

2. Taudactylus diurnus (EX)*

3. Rheobatrachus silus (EX)*

4. Rheobatrachus vitellinus (EX)*

Petropeptidae

1. Conraua derooi

2. Petropedetes dutoiti*

Ranidae – True frogs

1. Lithobates fisheri (EX)

2. Lithobates omiltemanus*

3. Lithobates pueblae

4. Lithobates tlaloci

Rhacophoridae – Asian Tree Frogs

1. Philautus jacobsoni

2. Philautus adspersus (EX)

3. Philautus dimbullae (EX)

4. Philautus eximius (EX)

5. Philautus extirpo (EX)

6. Philautus halyi (EX)

7. Philautus hypomelas (EX)

8. Philautus leucorhinus (EX)

9. Philautus maia (EX)

10. Philautus malcolmsmithi (EX)

11. Philautus nanus (EX)

12. Philautus nasutus (EX)

13. Philautus oxyrhynchus (EX)

14. Philautus pardus (EX)

15. Philautus rugatus (EX)

16. Philautus stellatus (EX)

17. Philautus temporalis (EX)

18. Philautus travancoricus (EX)

19. Philautus variabilis (EX)

20. Philautus zal (EX)

21. Philautus zimmeri(EX)

Strabomantidae

1. Holoaden bradei

2. Oreobates zongoensis

3. Pristimantis bernali

MISSING SALAMANDERS

Plethodondiade – Lungless salamanders

1. Bradytriton silus

2. Chiropterotriton magnipes

3. Oedipina paucidentata

4. Plethodon ainsworthi (EX)

5. Pseudoeurycea ahuitzotl

6. Pseudoeurycea aquatica

7. Pseudoeurycea naucampatepetl

8. Pseudoeurycea praecellens

9. Pseudoeurycea tlahcuiloh

10. Thorius infernalis

11. Thorius narismagnus

Salimandridae – Newts

1. Cynops wolterstorffi (EX)

Have you seen any of these missing amphibians? Do you think that other species should be added? Use the comments field below to tell us your thoughts. For another list of possibly extinct species, grouped by countries, see amphibia web.