Rabb's Fringe-limbed tree frog to be featured in National Geographic

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This week Joel Sartore, photographer for National Geographic, was in the Garden's frogPOD photographing Rabb's Fringe-limbed tree frog (Ecnomiohyla rabborum). Last year, amphibian biologists concluded that this Panamanian frog is likely to be extinct in the wild, leaving the male in our collection as the last known animal on earth.

Joel Sartore, pictured here photographing Ecnomiohyla rabborum, has photographed more than 2,600 endangered species for his Photo Ark, aimed at preserving—at the very least—the memory of the earth's biodiversity.
A profile of the frog will be featured in an upcoming issue of National Geographic magazine. We will keep you posted!

The frog was out of his enclosure for only a moment to minimize stress on this important animal.
The Rabb's Fringe-limbed tree frog (and all the frogs in the Garden's frogPOD) was collected from Panama in 2005 ahead of the arrival of the 'amphibian chytrid' fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis  which has devastated frog populations worldwide. Currently, frogs in the POD are from the original collection in Panama or are descended from these frogs. After the collection, the fungus arrived and dramatically reduced the amphibian population of the region.

For more information on the Photo Ark, click here to see a video (originally aired on NBC): http://vimeo.com/40897039

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