Environment hosting Save the Frogs Day activities
BRADES, Montserrat – The Montserrat Department of Environment’s Mountain Chicken Project plans a programme of activities as part of a worldwide SAVE THE FROGS DAY.
The 4th Annual Save the Frogs Day, scheduled for Saturday, April 28th will be dedicated to amphibian education and conservation action around the world. Over 150 Save the Frogs Day events are happening in 28 countries, including Montserrat. The goal is to raise awareness of the rapid disappearance of frog species worldwide. The events are being coordinated by the SAVE THE FROGS organisation (www.savethefrogs.com), a California-based nonprofit group dedicated to amphibian conservation.
Activities planned for the Save the Frogs Day in Montserrat include a week-long display about amphibians at the Montserrat Public Library, which began on Monday April 23rd, a radio interview on the People’s Show on Wednesday April 25th and a community presentation to be held at the Montserrat National Trust in Salem on Saturday April 28th at 4:00 p.m.
Amphibian populations worldwide have been declining at unprecedented rates, and nearly one-third of the world’s amphibian species are threatened with extinction. Up to 200 species have completely disappeared in recent years. Amphibians are faced with an onslaught of environmental problems, including climate change, pollution, infectious diseases, habitat loss, invasive species, and over-harvesting for the pet and food trades.
In Montserrat the presence of the deadly chytrid fungus is affecting the critically endangered Mountain Chicken and the Mountain Chicken Project has embarked on a three-year programme of research to determine ways to prevent this species from becoming extinct.
Dr. Kerry Kriger, founder & Executive Director of SAVE THE FROGS states that “The goal of Save the Frogs Day is to get people worldwide educating their fellow citizens about the plight of amphibians and ways they can help. Frogs offer many benefits. They eat mosquitoes, provide us with medical advances, serve as food for birds, fish and their tadpoles filter our drinking water.”
Information on amphibian research can be sourced on the local website www.mountainchicken.org and other useful information on global species of frogs can be found on www.savethefrogs.com.
