Colombia: two frog species, thought extinct, found alive

This video from Colombia is called Santa Marta Parakeet in El Dorado Nature Reserve.

From CBC (Canada):

Endangered frogs in Colombia found in nature reserve

Last Updated Tue, 06 Jun 2006

CBC News

Two frog species feared extinct by scientists have been rediscovered in Colombia, renewing hope among conservationists trying to save amphibians.

For the first time in 14 years, the critically endangered Santa Marta harlequin frog (Atelopus laetissimus ) and San Lorenzo harlequin frog (Atelopus nahumae) were spotted in a nature reserve on the Caribbean coast of Colombia.

A deadly fungus is decimating frog populations in Central and South America by smothering amphibian skin, but the two species appear to be unscathed.

“It’s a race against time to prevent chytridiomycosis from wiping out amphibian populations, but now we have discovered what appear to be healthy populations of these endangered species,” Claude Gascon, vice-president for regional programs at Conservation International, said in a statement Tuesday.

The fungus has been found as close as 40 kilometres away, on the other side of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Other species are in the El Dorado Nature Reserve, including:

Five threatened amphibians found nowhere else.

The endangered Santa Marta parakeet.

Neotropical birds that breed in Canada and the U.S., such as the cerulean and the golden-winged warbler.

Frogs and other amphibians also face pressure from pollution, climate change, deforestation and urban sprawl.

The animals are exposed to more threats since they live on land and in water.

Last year, the Alliance for Zero Extinction, a group of conservationists, said preserving 595 sites around the world could help save 794 endangered species.

Atelopus carrikeri rediscovered in a remote mountainous region in Colombia: here.

Red-eyed tree frog eggs escaping from snakes: here.

From BirdLife:

Neotropical migrants in the Tropical Andes

12-05-2006

Each year over 340 species of bird leave their breeding grounds in North America to spend the northern winter in the Neotropics, to the south of the Tropic of Cancer.

For one third of these “Neotropical migrants” their wintering range and/or important stopover sites lie within the Tropical Andes of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

This region is one of the biologically richest yet most threatened areas in the planet.

Covering just 3% of the world it nevertheless holds 28% of the world’s bird species, many of them endemic, and 130 in imminent danger of extinction.

However, it is not just the endemic species which are threatened with extinction.

The populations of many migratory species are also undergoing marked population declines.

Of the 130 migratory species that regularly occur in the Tropical Andes, 29 are considered as “Birds of Conservation Concern” (16 species of landbird and 13 waterbirds), and five species are of global conservation concern.

These are the globally threatened Cerulean Warbler Dendroica cerulea, and the near-threatened Elegant Tern Sterna elegans, Buff-breasted Sandpiper Tryngites subruficollis, Olive-sided Flycatcher Contopus cooperi and Golden-winged Warbler Vermivora chrysoptera.

To expedite the conservation of the unique biodiversity of the Tropical Andes, BirdLife International and Conservation International together with partner organizations in each country have identified a network of 455 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) – sites of global significance for the conservation of birds.

New owl species in Santa Marta? See here.

Rare image of the Vulnerable Santa Marta warbler: here.

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