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Dec 2, 20225 min read

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Dec 2, 20225 min read

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Nov 11, 20222 min read

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Oct 23, 20224 min read

The Panamanian Golden Frog

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Oct 14, 20223 min read

"Eat The Frog" How I Took Mark Twain Too Seriously

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My name is Jasper White, and I love frogs. This fact and my love of travel earned me the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which provides recent college graduates a year of funded travel to explore our passions. So what's the catch?

MY FROG
OF THE MONTH

The Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) is a species native to the mountainous regions of the Panamá and Coclé provinces. Its poisonous skin was historically used by local indigenous communities to add toxicity to arrows.

However, due to habitat loss and chytridiomycosis infection, it has been in decline since the 1990s and is likely extinct in the wild. Luckily, these rapid declines inspired national recognition of this special frog, and since 2010, August 14th has been recognised by the Panamanian government as National Golden Frog Day. This holiday is celebrated with parades and special exhibitions at zoos in El Valle de Antón, the last place the species was seen in the wild in 2006.

I recently had a couple of opportunities to visit this town. Once to place audio recorders along suitable habitat transect to monitor for the species, and another time to meet with the founder of the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center (EVACC), Edgardo Griffith. Both of these experiences were beyond inspirational.