A GIANT LEAP FOR AMPHIBIAN CONSERVATION: SOUTH AFRICA’S “FROG LADY” WINS 2020 WHITLEY AWARD
Dr Jeanne Tarrant, Manager of the EWT’s Threatened Amphibian Programme, and known locally as the “Frog Lady”, has won a prestigious Whitley Award worth £40,000 to support her quest to save threatened amphibians. The EWT is the only NGO in South Africa to include frogs as a conservation focus.
The Whitley Awards, often referred to as ‘Green Oscars’, are awarded annually to individuals from the Global South by UK-based conservation charity the Whitley Fund for Nature. Jeanne is one of six conservationists to be recognised this year for their achievements in nature conservation.
Amphibians are the most threatened group of animals on the planet with 41% of all species at risk of extinction. Almost two-thirds of the country’s 135 frog species are found nowhere else, making South Africa a priority for amphibian conservation.
Despite this, a combination of threats from habitat loss due to mining, agriculture and pollution are putting the country’s frogs at risk.
In some South African cultures, frogs can be associated with witchcraft, making them often feared by locals. Jeanne’s educational work aims to dispel such myths and raise awareness and appreciation of the important role frogs play in the health of the environment and ecosystem. The EWT’s national awareness Leap Day for Frogs has attracted some 15,000 participants over the past five years. Jeanne has inspired school children with her “ Frogs in the Classroom” learning programme, gaining young fans and earning her the title of the “Frog Lady”.
Growing up in the southern Drakensberg mountains of KwaZulu-Natal, Jeanne was surrounded by nature. Following her undergraduate studies, she worked in the UK for five years before returning to her homeland of South Africa to specialise in the research of threatened South African frogs.
Some of the species that Jeanne and her team conserve include the Critically Endangered Amathole Toad, which had not been seen for over 13 years until Jeanne and her colleagues re-discovered it in 2011. Jeanne also works with the Endangered Pickersgill’s Reed Frog, with the number of known localities of this tiny 2cm amphibian on the rise thanks to her efforts.
In addition to education and field work, Jeanne works with government to ensure enhanced protection for frogs on a policy level. Supported by WFN, her team will produce a 10-year conservation and research strategy for South African frogs and protect 20,000ha of amphibian habitat conserving 8 species.
Jeanne said: “While South Africa has excellent environmental legislation, illegal developments continue to destroy frog habitats. Our aim is to not only improve appreciation of frogs through research and education but use our slippery friends as flagships for the wider conservation of vital freshwater and terrestrial areas that are under the increasing threat of humans.
“The fact that almost half of amphibians are experiencing declines should be a massive wake-up call to humanity that all is not right with our planet – most people however are unaware that amphibians are even in trouble.”
Edward Whitley, Founder of the Whitley Fund for Nature, said: “Jeanne is an inspiring leader who tirelessly advocates for amphibians – an often overlooked group. We hope that this Whitley Award will allow her to spread her important message far and wide, and bring about real change for amphibians and their habitat through science, policy, and community education.”
Six conservationists have won Whitley Awards and will each receive £40,000 in funding to support their work with a range of threatened species. While normally presented to winners by charity Patron HRH The Princess Royal at an annual Ceremony in London, the 2020 Whitley Awards Ceremony was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst the winners will receive their funding now, they will be invited to attend a ceremony and related events in London later this year to celebrate their achievements, should circumstances allow.
This year’s Whitley Gold Award honours Brazilian conservationist Patrícia Medici for her outstanding dedication to protecting South America’s largest land mammal, the lowland tapir, using it as a flagship for largescale habitat preservation. Patrícia is a world expert in the science of tapir conservation and has dedicated her life to shedding light on this unusual looking, yet little-known species. Against a backdrop of political and environmental instability in Brazil, her work is more important than ever. The Whitley Gold Award enables the expansion of her work to the embattled Amazon.
Visit www.whitleyaward.org to find out more.
GLOBAL PANDEMICS – WHY THE AMPHIBIAN EXTINCTION CRISIS ALSO NEEDS ATTENTION
Dr Jeanne Tarrant, Manager, EWT Threatened Amphibian Programme
JeanneT@ewt.org.za
Within the space of a month we have all become very familiar with terms associated with disease – epidemiology, infection rate, pathogen, asymptomatic, zoonotic, and so on. ‘Corona’ and ‘COVID-19’ have become household names across the world in a matter of weeks, as a virus invisible to the eye has brought life as we know it to a grinding halt across 210 countries and locking down nearly half the world’s population.
But did you know that frogs have been facing an even worse pandemic for the last twenty years? The chytrid fungus has caused death and species extinction at a global scale. Amphibians by their nature (they use both land and water during their lifecycles and have permeable skins) are very sensitive to changes in the environment. They are the most threatened animals on the planet with currently 41% of 8,000 known species at risk of extinction, largely as a result of loss of habitat, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. But disease is also a significant threat driving declines and extinctions of this group of animals.
In the late 1990s, researchers discovered that a fungal pathogen (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd for short) was responsible for the declines observed in frog populations since the 80s, including in remote areas otherwise not threatened by habitat destruction. Much research has been undertaken to better understand this pathogen, which causes a disease called chytridiomycosis, shortened to chytrid. Chytrid has been declared a notifiable disease according to the World Organisation for Animal Health. The disease threatens more species than any other disease known to science and it is the first wildlife disease known to cause widespread extinction. Recent research shows that it has, or is, causing declines in at least 501 species, with about 90 of these having gone extinct in recent decades. The chytridiomycosis panzootic represents the greatest recorded loss of biodiversity attributable to a disease, largely because of its ability to infect a wide range of hosts.
Chytrid fungus is an aquatic pathogen that causes skin damage in frogs, leading to electrolyte imbalance and cardiac arrest. It spreads through water, from host to host, and can persist without a host for weeks. Its very low host-specificity means it can easily move from one frog species to another, and it has now evolved to also infect salamanders. Chytrid is present in over 60 countries, with the worst affected regions being Australia, and South and Central America.
Just as we are seeing with COVID-19, the rapid spread of disease is a real hazard in our interconnected world. Amphibian chytrid fungus has been spread by globalisation and wildlife trade – particularly the pet and food trade – both legal and illegal. Sound familiar? Transporting and keeping frogs in suboptimal conditions increases their susceptibility to disease and disease transmission is elevated as a result of crowded conditions. The disease is also spread when infected animals escape and shipping materials are incorrectly disposed of. COVID-19 crossed to humans precisely because of the same reasons – inadequate health, sanitation and protection measures in wildlife trade and consumption.
While the amphibian pandemic may not have garnered much attention, there are many parallels between chytrid and COVID-19 that should cause alarm. The emergence of a pandemic that threatens human health has long been predicted by experts, and similar diseases will continue to emerge as long as humans continue to destroy wildlife habitats and harvest wild species for consumption. As we approach nine billion people on the planet, the demand for food, and the space to create it, grows. The opportunities for disease-causing pathogens to pass from wild and domestic animals to people, and vice versa, have never been greater. The consequences of this are now very apparent as healthcare systems become overwhelmed and the world economy faces potential depression.
So, what can we learn from both COVID-19 and chytrid? Not only do we require much stronger regulations on the movement and trade of wild species, but how we treat wildlife and wild spaces also needs more attention and should come from a place of respect. Protecting natural spaces is now more important than ever as we recognise the value of intact nature as a critical step to protecting human health, as well as stemming the massive loss of biodiversity we are currently experiencing. Part of the longer-term response to global diseases needs to include prevention of habitat loss. We can all play a part in this through our everyday consumer and family-size choices and having an empathy towards the other creatures we are still fortunate enough to share this, our only planet, with.
