# General Topics > General Discussion & News > Press / News Items > Amphibian News Feeds >  Frog in Australia goes from 'extinct' to very, very endangered

## Frog News

*Mongabay News (California, USA) March 7th, 2010 07:33 PM: Frog in Australia goes from 'extinct' to very, very endangered*

Facing habitat loss,  pollution, climate change, and the devastating chytrid fungus, there has  been little positive news about amphibians recently. However, a story  out of Australia brings a much needed respite from bad news.  

In 2008 Luke Pearce, a fisheries conservation officer, stumbled on a  frog that had been thought to be extinct for over thirty years. Not  recorded since the 1970s, Pearce rediscovered the yellow-spotted bell  frog (_Litoria castanea_) on rural Australian farmland in the  Southern Tableland of New South Wales.  

*Continued in Full Article*

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## Terry

I know its a little late, but I found an article from the Voice of America (voa.gov) archive that may interest some of you:

*Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain.*

Back From the Dead - 'Extinct' Frog Found in Australian Stream

   Phil Mercer | Sydney 05 March 2010

   A  species  of  frog  has been found alive on a farm in Australia more
   than 30 years after it was thought to have become extinct. Environment
   officials have said a thriving population of yellow-spotted bell frogs
   has been found in a remote creek in New South Wales.
   The yellow-spotted bell frog is back from the dead.  It was thought to
   have  become  extinct  but  has now been seen for the first time since
   1973.
   Dr.  David Hunter, a threatened species officer at the New South Wales
   Environment Department, was there when about 100 frogs were found in a
   remote stream, the location of which is being kept secret.

   "This  was definitely the most exciting moment of my career and I'd be
   surprised  if  I'll repeat it," he said.  "We really don't want anyone
   going  to  the  site,  trying to see the bell frog or capture the bell
   frog,  because there's always the possibility that that could actually
   introduce  an  unknown  pathogen  into  the  population  and  cause  a
   problem.'
   The  yellow-spotted  bell  frog's disappearance is likely to have been
   caused by a range of factors, including disease, a loss of habitat and
   pollution.
   Experts  believe  that  exposure  to  a  deadly fungus that arrived in
   Australia from Africa in the 1970s decimated frog numbers.
   A collection of tadpoles has been established at Taronga Zoo in Sydney
   as part of a plan to re-populate rivers and streams.
   The  zoo's Michael McFadden says the breeding program should help this
   vulnerable species survive.

   "We  need to get an insurance population so that if something bad does
   happen  over the next year and they are totally gone, we have at least
   not lost that species and we can work at re-introducing them back into
   their natural habitat," McFadden said.
   Scientists  have warned there are more than 40 threatened frog species
   fighting for survival in Australia.
   The  International  Union  for  Conservation  of  Nature has said that
   one-third  of the world's 6,000 species of amphibians are under threat
   of extinction.
   The  New  South  Wales  Environment  Minister,  Frank Sartor, said the
   discovery of yellow-spotted bell frogs was the amphibian equivalent of
   discovering  the  Tasmanian  Tiger, a carnivorous Australian marsupial
   that died out in the 1930s.

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