As you probably remember, I don't much like frogs, and used to have a serious phobia about them, so it might be surprising that I would be interested in an article titled "Secrets of frog killer laid bare", which I saw on the BBC News as I was browsing in room 201 this morning. However, when I had a look at the article, both the content and the potential did keep me interested.
In his report, Richard Black describes a fungal disease that has been killing off frogs and similar animals around the world and the research by groups in the US and Australia to better understand how this disease manages to kill frogs. Their aim is to understand how it works so that they can find a solution before some species become extinct.
Although I don't much like frogs, I don't want most species to disappear from the Earth forever. In fact, I'm much less anti-frog than I used to be when I was in primary and secondary school and my batrachophobia was a serious problem. When I was at home last week, I stayed with one of my brothers, who has a farm outside of town, and the frogs on his property didn't worry me. However, I was also very glad that the recent cold and dry weather had gotten rid of one type of frog, more accurately, a toad. I really hate cane toads, which are large, poisonous frogs, originally from South America, that have invaded Australia and are killing off many native Australian animals. As I read Black's article, I was wondering to myself: "Wouldn't it be good if the scientists can work out a way to protect some frogs, but at the same time to destroy other types of frogs." If it were possible to kill every cane toad in Australia using the deadly chytridiomycosis fungus as a biological weapon, I would be very happy, and I'm sure every Australian would agree with me. We would like to see the cane toad invaders totally destroyed. But not the native Aussie frogs: I rather like them these days, and they are useful in the Australian ecology.
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References
Black, R. (2009, October 22). Secrets of frog killer laid bare. BBC News. Retrieved October 27, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8319467.stm
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