By Jackson Mauze, Bay Nature
An exotic fungal pathogen, responsible for the demise of as many as 500 amphibian species around the world, has been discovered in Golden Gate Park.
The California Fish and Wildlife Department is in the final stages of eradicating its carrier, the invasive South African clawed frog, from the park. A recent study has provided an even greater incentive to exterminate the frogs: They are one of the original carriers of a fungus, known as Bd (short for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis), that exclusively targets amphibians.
“This disease is causing the biggest decline [in amphibians] ever recorded by a single pathogen in history,” said Vance Vredenburg, a San Francisco State University biologist and researcher. “It makes the bubonic plague look like a drop in the bucket.”
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