Initiative 1; Part 4: Captive Assurance Colonies.

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Pictured here is a frog which is believed to be the last of its kind - the Rabbs' Fringe-limbed Tree Frog. While his story is incredibly sad, it emphasizes the importance of conserving biodiversity and paying attention to what the global amphibian declines are trying to tell us. In collaboration with Zoo Atlanta, we tried to establish an assurance colony of Rabbs' Fringe- limbed Tree Frog (#Ecnomiohyla rabborum) in 2005 and were able to get them to lay eggs, but the tadpoles never completed metamorphosis. While this collaboration with the zoo was able to establish assurance colonies of many Panamanian species threatened with extinction, we were unsuccessful with E. rabborum. Ten years later, this frog has a powerful message - one that has been told in National Geographic (thanks to @joelsartore and PhotoArk); in Huffington Post (thanks to @leilanimunter) and next month, he will be featured in a major documentary by Louie Psihoyos called #RacingExtinction . The movie premieres on Discovery channel on December 2nd. Today, he is doing well and lives in the #frogPOD with other Panamanian species rescued from the chytrid fungus outbreak that devastated amphibian populations in 2005. For more information, see the post from a few days ago (Part 1)

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