Scientists have discovered that deforestation has caused infertility in frogs that are endemic to the Philippines.
What's happening?
The truncate-toed chorus frog is a tree frog, and the slender-digit chorus frog is a ground or burrowing frog. The two species have interbred over time and created the Leyte chorus frog.
As Mongabay stated, hybrid species aren't inherently bad or concerning. And while the Leyte frog sightings were exciting, since they hadn't been seen in about a century, they can't reproduce.
If female truncate-toed and male slender-digit chorus frogs keep mating only with each other, this could become a bigger problem.
Why is frog infertility concerning?
These chorus frogs would mate with their own species more if there were more trees. And deforestation in the Philippines has generally happened because of colonization.
Between the 1500s and now, Spain, the U.S., and Japan have caused significant damage to Philippine autonomy and forests. While these actions started about five centuries ago, they're having a huge effect on the Philippines' ecosystems now.
Female truncate-toed frogs can't really leap through trees to find males of their species anymore. They instead go to the nearest breeding pool, which usually has male slender-digit frogs, and create Leyte chorus tadpoles.
"Just imagine an entire population — thousands of individuals — emerging with the onset of the monsoon rains, and all the forest is gone. That's a pretty sad scenario," Rafe Brown, the lead researcher and a herpetologist at the University of Kansas, told Mongabay.
If these frog species keep mating, it won't just be the Leyte chorus frog that will be a rare sight.
Native animal species keep our ecosystems and food supply chains alive. Forests also do an incredible job of taking pollution out of our air, which keeps us healthy. If these animals and plants disappear, we could face more health issues and food scarcity.
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Yes — often 😬 What's being done about the frogs and deforestation?
Some of the best solutions we have to protect the frogs and forests are reforestation and conservation.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Manila has launched a campaign called Forests for Life. It aims to plant 5 million indigenous trees by 2028 and will allow stakeholders to invest in the environment.
Organizations such as Forest Foundation Philippines are also protecting what's already there. Its work is essential to protecting forests in the Sierra Madre area. FFP is expanding green-recovery areas as well, which will allow forests to bounce back after typhoons damage them.
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