Download Frogs Video Thin Green Line - answers

Frogs: The Thin Green Line
1.
If toads can’t get to _____their breeding grounds___________, their population will
gradually vanish.
2.
__Millions_____ of amphibians die each year when they collide with humans. Human
population has __doubled________ in the past 50 years. Amphibians can’t
_____evolve____ quickly enough to keep up with the changes.
3.
What is one of the causes for the decline in number of mountain yellow legged frog in
Yosetime National Park?
- fungus – chytrid; species Bd
- fungus infects the skin, destroying structure & function
4.
How do humans use secretions from frog’s skin?
- Medicine –
- painkillers, more effective than morphine
-Treating infections
- Investigating ability in preventing HIV
5.
Why is the impact on earth’s ecosystems more troubling?
- change in many populations – insects, snakes, birds
- algae
6.
Why do they take the temperature of the frog?
- there is a debate about climate change & how it is affecting frogs, trying to
investigate this
7.
How do they detect Bd?
- take swab of skin & send to lab
8.
How have they saved frogs in Central Panama?
- evacuated frogs
- conservation centre which shelters frogs that may be gone from wild due to
chytrid
9.
Everything from frogs to humans has to be ___washed/sterilized________ to ensure
that chytrid does not get into ___E-vac/conservation centre___________. Success is
measured by _______egg clutches and tadpoles____.
10. What is the goal of conservation centres?
- return frogs to wild one day
11. What are some of the other factors that are causing the number of frogs to decline and
what is the effect on the frogs?
- parasite causing deformities, but parasite is not found where frogs are – unsure of
what is going on
- chemicals, such as medicines, dumped down drains
- birth control pills
- causing reproductive deformities – 20% in one pond, which is not normal
- pesticides, fertilizers – chemical runoff ends up in river
 extinction of native frogs
- even tough bullfrog is not doing so well with toxins in the water
- atrazine (common herbicide) – genetic male frogs are turning into females! Skewing
sex ratios
- climate change & drought
12. Reproductive abnormalities have been reported in everything from ____alligators__ to
__polar bears__ to __humans.__ __Australia__ has been hard hit: __7__ species have
been lost and many more are on the fast track to extinction.
13. “Even if we have breed so many frogs and put them out there where ___95%__ of them
die, survive, the ones that do survive are resistant. What we are trying to drive
___evolution___ so these frogs will be able to live with __chytrid___.”
14. What techniques/measures are they taking to save frogs in Yosemite?
- relocate frogs 5-6 miles
- recapture frogs, swabbing them to get a sense of how they are coping in their new
environment
- swabbed for fungus, given ID (tag inserted)
- frogs airlifted to new site