Darwin’s Frog (Rhinoderma darwinii) Photo by By Ong ranita – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=131485745

Dear Readers, it has, after all, been several weeks since I published a story about frogs, and it’s great to have some good news for once. Darwin’s Frog was always rare – it lives in a tiny area of the Parque Tantauco forests on an island off the coast of Chile, and is unique amongst frogs because the male frog broods the tiny tadpoles in his mouth. When chytrid fungus was discovered in some of the frogs in 2023  over 90 percent of the population was already infected with this fatal disease, which has been called the most devastating infectious animal disease ever discovered.

In response, a collaboration between London Zoo conservationists and their partners in Chile hatched a plan to rescue some of the remaining frogs, before they too disappeared. For five days, researchers searched the rainforest with the help of local guides – some of the frogs were captured after the guides mimicked the high-pitched, peeping calls of the frogs. In the end, 55 frogs were found, amongst them 11 males who were already carrying tadpoles in their vocal sacs.

All the frogs were skin-swabbed to make sure that they weren’t carrying chytrid fungus – 2 of the frogs unfortunately were, but the remaining 53 were cleared for the 8,000 mile journey from Chile to London, by boat and plane, to the biosecure environment at London Zoo. You might remember that the zoo has just opened a new reptile house, with the aim of being an ‘ark’ for some of the rarest reptile and amphibian species in the world. The father frogs kept their tadpoles well protected for the whole journey.

Then, last week, there was news that 33 froglets had been ‘born’ – the tadpoles metamorphose in the adults’ mouths and then hop off.

Darwin’s froglet (Photo from https://www.londonzoo.org/zoo-stories/news/33-endangered-froglets-born-after-deadly-fungus-rescue-mission by Joe Capon

A film maker accompanied the ZSL/Chilean team on their mission to locate and rescue the frogs, and it’s here on Youtube. With all the terrible things that are happening in the world at the moment, it’s good to be reminded that there are people who will literally go to the ends of the earth to try to preserve a tiny frog. Well worth 13 minutes of your time.