Wild toads from Tanzania who was threatened with extinction is now proliferating rapidly in the laboratory. Researchers are still unsure release of this species into the wild.
Kihanshi spray toad story originates from hydroelectric dam construction project in Kihansi River, which divides Tanzania in 1996. When the researchers found a small frog that lives in rocky cliffs that create waterfalls as high as 900 meters. Later revealed that these frogs live in wet vertical splash generated by waterfalls.
Kihanshi frog skin color is a blend of pale yellow and white. Frog stomach contents can be seen clearly because the abdominal skin of this beast a little transparent.
Small size makes this animal only weighs a few grams. Frog reproduction is done through the birthing process, rather than laying eggs. Master frogs always carry her baby behind her back.
"This species is very unique and endemic," says James Gibbs, a conservation biologist from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), Syracuse, New York, United States. "This frog is a vertebrate animal with four legs with the smallest residential area in the world."
Construction of the dam leads to reduced water discharge flowing river. As a result, the waterfall was almost reduced drastically, thus causing the decrease in frog populations.
Efforts to save the frog population is done by moving the 500 animals to the Bronx Zoo, New York. But in the new place, this frog is difficult to survive so that the number of individuals who survive shrinking.
Some individuals are still alive moved to the Toledo Zoo in Ohio. In this place, researchers breed 50 frogs. In a short time, rapidly expanding the number of frogs. Government of Tanzania came to investigators and asked that these animals are returned to their habitat.
But Gibbs and his team are reluctant to fulfill the will of the government of Tanzania. According to them, have done research on this small frog native habitat. The presence of chytrid fungal pathogen at the site of origin could threaten such a small frog. "We do not want to frog back to its habitat but suffer," said Gibbs.*** [LIVESCIENCE | ANTON WILLIAM | KORAN TEMPO 3602]
