‘Frog Saunas’ Could Protect Species from Devastating Fungal Disease
A low-tech immune boost may help some species of frogs survive a brutal fungal disease that’s already ended 90 species
The bad news: frogs around the globe are still dying in droves from a nasty fungal infection that penetrates their skin and stops their heart. The good news: scientists now have evidence that offering frogs their own little “sauna” in the winter might help them fend off the disease.
Called chytridiomycosis, or chytrid disease, the illness was first identified a few decades ago. In the short time since, it has killed off at least 90 frog species worldwide and has pushed hundreds of other amphibian species into decline. Scientists have noticed that the infection, caused primarily by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, seems more deadly in cold, wet climates than in warm, dry ones.
Researchers studying chytrid have previously focused on observing the infection and its effects in the wild. For a new study in Nature, scientists took things a bit further: they provided frogs with artificial heat-trapping structures akin to “saunas.”
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“It’s an idea that’s been around for a really long time, that if you can create scenarios where there’s warm habitat for frogs, you can protect them from chytrid,” says Anthony Waddle, a conservation biologist at Macquarie University in Australia and a co-author of the new research.
The team focused on an Australian species called the green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea), which has been hit by population declines and territory shrinkages since chytrid arrived. “It’s a pretty meaty, fat little frog,” Waddle…
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