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“The last time we saw such a cate gorical loss was with the dinosaurs. And no one can say that didn’t change the planet.”
——Joe Mendelson Zoo Atlanta
“我们最后一次提到灭绝的物种应该是‘恐龙’。没有人能肯定这不会给我们的星球带来一些意想不到的变故。”
——乔·门德尔松亚特兰大动物园
Scientists have known for decades that the world’s amphibian1 populations are in trouble. But the 2004 Global Amphibian Assessment, compiled by Conservation International and partners, held shocking news, and wormlike caecilians2 assessed, almost a third are threatened and 168 have become extinct, most in just the past 20 years. The top culprit3 implicated in the report, habitat loss, came as no surprise. But a lesser known offender, a recently identified disease caused by the chytrid fungus4, is proving to be the most efficient killer of all.
The fungus, which invades the animals’skins and disrupts their water balance, is running wild in the Americas and parts of Australia.
“Within four months most of the 64 species of frogs here were infected or gone,” says Southern Illinois University’s Karen Lips of her long-term research site in central Panama. “Species we’d rarely even seen were falling out of trees, building up from the ground, dying from fungal disease,”she says. “It’s unheard of.”
In an unprecedented move scientists from Zoo Atlanta are now racing ahead of the disease and capturing as many animals as they can to save them from extinction. “We need to put healthy frogs into zoos and other facilities while we wait this out,” says Zoo Atlanta’s Joe Mendelson. At Lip’s Panama site, he says, “You can look down the spine of the mountain and know nothing in that line has hope. It’s very sobering to make a list of what to rescue and what to leave behind, but that’s all we can do.”As frogs sit in refuges, scientists will seek ways to boost their immunities or neutralize the pathogen5 in the wild so the animals can be released.
No one knows the origin of the fungus, why it causes disease in only some species, or how to control it. Studies outside the Western Hemisphere and Australia are few, but six continents are now known to house the pathogen.”Traditional conservation tactics like habitat protection are irrelevant here,”says Mendelson.”We need entirely new thinking, or we’ll lose amphibians.”
几十年来，科学家们已经了解到世界上的两栖类家族将要面临很大的麻烦。但是，2004年“全球两栖动物评估协会”发布了一条令人震惊的消息：几乎有三分之一的无足目两栖动物受到威胁， 其中168种濒临灭绝，而这些活生生的小东西20多年前还衣食无忧。“罪魁祸首”在报导中一目了然——“栖息地的流失”，这似乎已经不足为奇了。但是还有一个不为人知的“凶手”——是一种最近已被确定了的由壶菌传染的病毒。这无疑成了所有动物中最可怕的杀手。
这种菌会侵蚀动物的皮肤并且破坏它们的体内水平衡，如今其已经在美国和澳洲的部分地区疯狂蔓延。
“仅仅在4个月之内，就有64种青蛙感染到这种病毒，有的甚至都逃不出死神之手，”南方伊利诺斯大学的克伦·丽普在巴拿马中心的长期研究站点上说。“这些被我们平时视为珍稀动物的物种如今全部放弃了大树，在地面上重振旗鼓，有的也难逃壶菌病毒一劫，”她说，“这都是前所未有的事情。”
一种空前绝后的力量促使亚特兰大动物园的科学家们着手攻克这种疾病，并尽自己最大的力量将更多的动物从死亡线上拉回来。“我们有必要在等待结果的时候把这些健康的青蛙送进动物园，或者给它们提供一些必要的设施，”亚特兰大动物园的乔·门德尔松说。在巴拿马的丽普研究站，他说：“你可以俯视这里的山脊，那时你就会明白在那里不会有任何生存的希望。我们要十分明确现在应该拯救什么，留下什么，所有的这一切我们都可以做到。”青蛙一旦拥有了自己的避难所， 科学家们也就可以寻找更多的方式去提高它们的免疫力或者抑制病原体在自然界的疯狂传播，只有这样，动物才会被释放出来。
没有人知道这种病毒的发源地，也没有人知道为什么它只会侵害某些物种，更没有人知道如何才能控制它。除了西半球和澳洲，其他的地方这样的研究相对比较少，但是现在六个洲的人们也都知道主动躲避这个“幽灵病原”。“如果再谈及像‘保护栖息地’这样传统的生态平衡策略似乎有点风马牛不相及，”门德尔松说。“我们现在需要全新的换位思考，不然我们最终还是会失去这些两栖类动物。”
左岸 摘译自 National Geography
——Joe Mendelson Zoo Atlanta
“我们最后一次提到灭绝的物种应该是‘恐龙’。没有人能肯定这不会给我们的星球带来一些意想不到的变故。”
——乔·门德尔松亚特兰大动物园
Scientists have known for decades that the world’s amphibian1 populations are in trouble. But the 2004 Global Amphibian Assessment, compiled by Conservation International and partners, held shocking news, and wormlike caecilians2 assessed, almost a third are threatened and 168 have become extinct, most in just the past 20 years. The top culprit3 implicated in the report, habitat loss, came as no surprise. But a lesser known offender, a recently identified disease caused by the chytrid fungus4, is proving to be the most efficient killer of all.
The fungus, which invades the animals’skins and disrupts their water balance, is running wild in the Americas and parts of Australia.
“Within four months most of the 64 species of frogs here were infected or gone,” says Southern Illinois University’s Karen Lips of her long-term research site in central Panama. “Species we’d rarely even seen were falling out of trees, building up from the ground, dying from fungal disease,”she says. “It’s unheard of.”
In an unprecedented move scientists from Zoo Atlanta are now racing ahead of the disease and capturing as many animals as they can to save them from extinction. “We need to put healthy frogs into zoos and other facilities while we wait this out,” says Zoo Atlanta’s Joe Mendelson. At Lip’s Panama site, he says, “You can look down the spine of the mountain and know nothing in that line has hope. It’s very sobering to make a list of what to rescue and what to leave behind, but that’s all we can do.”As frogs sit in refuges, scientists will seek ways to boost their immunities or neutralize the pathogen5 in the wild so the animals can be released.
No one knows the origin of the fungus, why it causes disease in only some species, or how to control it. Studies outside the Western Hemisphere and Australia are few, but six continents are now known to house the pathogen.”Traditional conservation tactics like habitat protection are irrelevant here,”says Mendelson.”We need entirely new thinking, or we’ll lose amphibians.”
几十年来，科学家们已经了解到世界上的两栖类家族将要面临很大的麻烦。但是，2004年“全球两栖动物评估协会”发布了一条令人震惊的消息：几乎有三分之一的无足目两栖动物受到威胁， 其中168种濒临灭绝，而这些活生生的小东西20多年前还衣食无忧。“罪魁祸首”在报导中一目了然——“栖息地的流失”，这似乎已经不足为奇了。但是还有一个不为人知的“凶手”——是一种最近已被确定了的由壶菌传染的病毒。这无疑成了所有动物中最可怕的杀手。
这种菌会侵蚀动物的皮肤并且破坏它们的体内水平衡，如今其已经在美国和澳洲的部分地区疯狂蔓延。
“仅仅在4个月之内，就有64种青蛙感染到这种病毒，有的甚至都逃不出死神之手，”南方伊利诺斯大学的克伦·丽普在巴拿马中心的长期研究站点上说。“这些被我们平时视为珍稀动物的物种如今全部放弃了大树，在地面上重振旗鼓，有的也难逃壶菌病毒一劫，”她说，“这都是前所未有的事情。”
一种空前绝后的力量促使亚特兰大动物园的科学家们着手攻克这种疾病，并尽自己最大的力量将更多的动物从死亡线上拉回来。“我们有必要在等待结果的时候把这些健康的青蛙送进动物园，或者给它们提供一些必要的设施，”亚特兰大动物园的乔·门德尔松说。在巴拿马的丽普研究站，他说：“你可以俯视这里的山脊，那时你就会明白在那里不会有任何生存的希望。我们要十分明确现在应该拯救什么，留下什么，所有的这一切我们都可以做到。”青蛙一旦拥有了自己的避难所， 科学家们也就可以寻找更多的方式去提高它们的免疫力或者抑制病原体在自然界的疯狂传播，只有这样，动物才会被释放出来。
没有人知道这种病毒的发源地，也没有人知道为什么它只会侵害某些物种，更没有人知道如何才能控制它。除了西半球和澳洲，其他的地方这样的研究相对比较少，但是现在六个洲的人们也都知道主动躲避这个“幽灵病原”。“如果再谈及像‘保护栖息地’这样传统的生态平衡策略似乎有点风马牛不相及，”门德尔松说。“我们现在需要全新的换位思考，不然我们最终还是会失去这些两栖类动物。”
左岸 摘译自 National Geography