Dozens of tiny frogs named after Charles Darwin have landed in London after being rescued from a killer fungus in Chile.
The peculiar, pointy-nosed southern Darwin’s frog once thrived in the Parque Tantauco forests in southern Chile.
But it is now plagued by the devastating chytrid fungus spread by humans, and their numbers have plummeted by 90% in just one year.
In a race to save the remaining creatures, a team of conservationists led by London Zoo launched a rescue mission to bring some back to the capital for a breeding and research programme.
In 1834, Darwin was the first to describe the tiny amphibians, which weigh less than 2.0g and are under 3cm long.
The species is unusual because it is the male frog who becomes pregnant and carries the eggs in its vocal sac, protecting them as they grow into tadpoles and froglets.
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Scientists spent five painstaking days in October combing the Chilean forest for the well camouflaged frogs.
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The team tracked them down the thanks to their “unmistakable, distinctive whistle, reminiscent of a songbird”, Andres Valenzuela-Sanchez, project lead and Institute of Zoology research fellow, told Sky News.
They then checked the animals were fungus-free before sending them on their long journey.
The frogs were sent on a six-hour boat ride, 15-hour drive to capital Santiago and a final flight to Heathrow, all in custom climate-controlled transport boxes.
Mr Valenzuela-Sanchez said the journey was “no small feat”, and involved “meticulous planning and more than a few sleepless nights”.
All 53 frogs arrived in good health and some even started making their whistling calls straight away, suggesting they were happy in their new surroundings, said ZSL, the conservation charity that runs London Zoo.
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ZSL hopes the animals, which are on loan from the Chilean government, will reproduce at the zoo, so their offspring can be reintroduced in Chile.
Ben Tapley, London Zoo’s curator of amphibians, said having a population there will “not only safeguard their survival but can also raise awareness of the urgent conservation challenges they face”.
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The southern Darwin’s frog must be protected because it is a “flagship species” for its endangered ecosystem – the Southern Hemisphere’s temperate forest – and because it sustains other species, like birds and snakes that feed on them, said Mr Valenzuela-Sanchez.
The fungus that threatens the frog has been spread around the globe by people, already wiping out 90 species and driving declines in a further 500, according to ZSL.
