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Article: Amphibia Fading.
- Article from:
- World Watch
- Article date:
- May 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Worldwatch Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The more we think we understand amphibian decline, the more mysterious it becomes-and the biggest mystery of all is whether we will act to stop it.
Why did it die out? The golden toad (Bufo periglenes) is by now perhaps the world's most famous amphibian, but it probably no longer exists it lived only in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Costa Rica--a foggy that of dense upland forest wracked by heavy winds that blow off the Caribbean. The toad's main babitat was on one cold, wet ridge called Brillante where it emerged en masse in spring for five to ten days at a time, to mate in rainwater that pooled against the roots of the trees.
On the somber ...