Action on amphibians

379 T first World Congress of Herpetology (University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, 1989) brought together field biologists who swapped stories about mysterious disappearances of various species of frogs. Sufficient concern was expressed to cause the National Research Council (USA) to convene a special workshop (February, 1990) to explore the matter1. The organization of a special task force on declining amphibian populations (DAPTF), allied with the Species Survival Commission (IUCN, Gland, Switzerland), was a direct outcome of this workshop. Throughout this decade, substantial research has been conducted on amphibian populations and, although many questions remain and many species and several areas of the world appear unaffected, there have been extensive species declines and extinctions (10–14 recent species extinctions can be documented, and evidence of additional extinctions exists). At the third World Congress of Herpetology (Prague, Czech Republic, 1997), a symposium highlighted new evidence of declines and hypotheses for their causes. The need for an in-depth analysis of the problem and development of a general research strategy was expressed by many, and in the months since the congress new developments have lent a sense of urgency. For example, Bruce Babbitt (Secretary of the Interior, USA) has shown a personal interest in the matter, requesting several briefings. At the most recent (May, 1998), two other USA presidential cabinet officers, Donna Shalala (Health and Human Services) and Carole Browner (the Environmental Protection Agency) were present, in addition to Neal Lane [the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), now the Presidential Science Advisor] and Harold Varmus (the Director of the National Institutes of Health). Why the sudden attention, after nearly a decade of concern? The explanation is complicated, but a combination of dramatic loss of populations in the great national parks of western USA (Ref. 2), the discovery of numerous instances of seriously deformed frogs (mainly reported in the popular news media), and evidence of new, virulent diseases that affect amphibians in lower Central America, Australia3 and Arizona4 are the main factors.