Denver Zoo Tries To Save Tiny Endangered Frog

DENVER -- The Denver Zoo is part of an effort to save a disappearing frog species that has become Panama's national symbol of nature.

Scientists fear that sometime next year, the last wild Panamanian golden frogs will die. The species is being destroyed by a fungus that is also wiping out other amphibian species. But about two dozen zoos including the Denver Zoo have several hundred of the frogs in captivity.

The fungus was only the final blow for a species whose numbers have long been dwindling because of deforestation, overcollection and water pollution.

So far, the Denver Zoo is one of only three zoos that have been able to coax captive-bred Panamanian golden frogs to reproduce. The zoo is part of Project Golden Frog created to try to save the critically endangered frog.

Rick Haeffner, the zoo's reptiles curator, said one of the biggest problems the program faces is that until the fungus goes away, there's nowhere to release the frogs into the wild.

Native to Central America, the Panamanian frog's bright colors provide a good example of warning coloration. Its skin produces poison when it is attacked, causing pain to its predator.