PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 13, 2013) – At least 11 rare Philippine frog species are fast dying out due to rapid environmental degradation, according to the environmental group called Pilipinas Ecowarriors.
It said the frogs have just been added to the Philippines’ official list of “threatened” species, and tagged either vulnerable or endangered.
The frogs have been identified based on their common names as the Mindanao fanged frog, Mindoro tree frog, Hazel’s forest frog, Gigante Island limestone frog, Lawton’s forest frog, Negros forest tree frog, Polillo Island forest tree frog, Rabor’s forest frog, Negros limestone frog, Mt. Data cloud frog, and Taylor’s Igorot frog.
Species are officially tagged “threatened” once their habitats have suffered extreme depletion and their populations have shrunk to a level below which the species or subspecies will be totally extinct.
Threatened species are further sub-classified either as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. Vulnerable species are under threat from serious adverse factors all over their range and are believed likely to drop to the endangered category in the near future. And endangered species are at great risk of being wiped out and survival is unlikely if casual factors continue to function.
Frogs play a crucially important role in the maze of life and in the food chain. They prey on insects, including mosquitoes, as wells as pests such as locusts that could possibly damage farm crops. The predators of frogs include humans, birds, monitor lizards, snakes, civet cats and other frogs.
The Philippines keeps a registry of wildlife species of priority concern for protection and conservation, in compliance with existing international and national laws. The catalogue is updated regularly by the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau.
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