A specimen of a golden frog, threatened with extermination.

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Bienvenido Velasco / EFE / SIPA

Sheltered from the outside world, some 200 golden frogs live in aquariums, confined in containers: in their natural state, they would not survive a killer fungus that threatens to exterminate a third of the amphibian species in Panama. .

At the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), on the Gamboa Canal (Panama), an irrigation system, rocks and vegetation reproduce their natural habitat in a bath of ultraviolet light and an ideal temperature.

For eleven years now, and despite being endemic to Panama, no golden frogs have been observed in their natural habitat.

Most, about 1,500, are in zoos in the United States for breeding.

But these rare black-spotted frogs measuring just eight centimeters are not the only ones threatened by the killer fungus that spreads in the water: toads and salamanders are also in danger.

"It's a super fungal"

"In Panama, we can say that about a third of the 225 species of amphibians are threatened," warns Roberto Ibañez, a STRI researcher with a doctorate in zoology from the University of Connecticut (United States).

"It's a super fungal" which "can even affect other species that are not amphibians," he explains.

Chytrid Fungus becomes embedded in the animal's skin and infects it, preventing it from exchanging salts and water with its environment.

The invasion causes irreparable damage to their vital functions and the animal dies, as though asphyxiated.

“It's a pretty dramatic and painful disease,” says Angie Estrada, doctor of biology and administrator of the Panama Botanical Garden.

Two-thirds fewer vertebrates in fifty years

Experts claim that the fungus, detected in the 20th century on the Korean Peninsula, has already spread around the world.

This pathogen, which arrived in Panama in the early 1990s, has continued to wreak havoc ever since.

It is responsible for chytridiomycosis, an infectious disease that has already caused the disappearance of 30 species.

“Everywhere in the world where there are amphibians, there is already the Chytrid Fungus,” says Angie Estrada.

Despite this dark scenario, a light illuminates the end of the tunnel.

In recent years, some species considered to be extinct have been spotted.

At STRI, some 2,000 specimens and 12 species of frogs are preserved in the hope of being able to release them one day, once the display against the Chytrid Fungus is found.

According to a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report released this week, the world has lost more than two-thirds of its vertebrates in less than 50 years.

The reality is particularly dramatic in the tropics of Central and South America, where the loss is 94%.

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