Frogs Are Bouncing Back

CENTRAL AMERICA’S AMPHIBIANS ARE EVOLVING RESISTANCE TO A DEVASTATING FUNGAL INFECTION

- Stuart Blackman

Just J a decade after the fungal skin disease chytridiomycosis swept through amphibian populations in Central America, there are signs that the region’s frogs are evolving resistance to it.

Discovered in the 1990s, chytridiomycosis, which is caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has wreaked havoc with amphibian populations around the world. But a new study in Panama suggests that many species devastated by the disease – nine of 12 species surveyed – have recovered.