Chapter 1: “The Sixth Extinction”

In chapter one, the author, Elizabeth Kolbert explains the extinction of frogs that were found in the town of El Valle De Anton in Central Panama. This town is a small one that sits in a volcanic crater. The author mentions that the open-air market has a large selection of golden frog figurines because they were a symbol of luck in Panama. These frogs were easy to spot across El Valle and they are extremely poisonous. Suddenly, the frogs started to disappear. As time progressed, more species of frogs were dying out as well. This motivated biologists to find a facility to attempt to prevent extinction. The first effort was placing the remaining frogs in a “frog hotel.” The frogs were transferred from the hotel to the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center or EVACC, which is directed by Eduardo Griffith. The building has lots of tanks where the frogs were able to experience conditions of the streams that they lived in before. They were meant to emulate the habitat of the frogs. EVACC was held under strict conditions. For example, anything that entered the building had to be disinfected and the author explains that it feels like a submarine. 

Eventually, the cause for the rapid deaths of several frog species was found after a pathologist at the National Zoo took samples from dead frogs and discovered a microorganism that was on their skin. This microorganism was a fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or BD,  and it was very unusual. BD impacts the natural process of frogs taking in electrolytes through their skin and leads to a heart attack. The fungus has the ability of thriving in the rainforest since it doesn't need any amphibians to survive. Since the fungus could linger in the rainforest, it makes it tough for the frogs at EVACC to be released into their habitat. Also, this fungus is unstoppable and it spreads everywhere. It travels through streams, or runoff  and is capable of moving on its own. This movement is accelerated by shipments of African clawed frogs or by North American bullfrogs that were sent to other continents like Europe and Asia. Nevertheless, this chapter connects to the theme, Humans alter natural systems. This is because the world’s population of frogs has decreased and the transport of different species of frogs across different continents has established a spread of the fungus. In hindsight, if this didn’t happen, the spread of BD could’ve been contained in one part of the world and the extinction would’ve been prevented.