Panama Poison Dart Frog Male Calling (Colostethus panamensis). Provincia de Colón, Panama. Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds www.chrisdoddsphoto.com All Rights Reserved. Canon EOS-1Ds MKIII, Sigma 150mm F2.8 Macro, Wimberley F2 Macro Flash Bracket, Canon 580 EX II Flash with LumiQuest Softbox III Hand-held. ISO 400, F16 @ 1/160s Manual mode. Full Frame.
Photographing so many species of frogs and toads during a recent trip to Panama has been a real eye opener in so many ways. Seeing first hand how many of the amphibians that I photographed are either listed as endangered, or well on their way there, is not only disturbing, it's life changing.
Listed by the IUCN Red List as a species of least concern (2004), the Colostethus panamensis (Panama Poison Dart Frog) has since become a high priority rescue species for The Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project.
There is a silent killer wiping out the world's frogs that everyone needs to hear about. Amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) is a lethal fungus spreading across Central America and wiping out entire populations of frogs. The Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is so deadly that it kills about half of all amphibian species and reduces overall populations by about 80% after it’s arrival in any given place. One third of the known 5,743 amphibian species in the world are at risk of being wiped out! On a world scale, since 1980, 122 species of amphibian species have gone extinct, compared with five bird species and no mammals in the same period. Be sure to click on the Panama Amphibian Rescue & Conservation Project badge below to learn more and see how you can help.
