March 20 is World Frog Day.\u00a0Frogs and toads have inhabited Earth for hundreds of millions of years, but 40% of amphibians species are now at risk of extinction, according to the latest conservation\u00a0assessments.<\/p>\n
Every year, roughly\u00a0150\u00a0new amphibian species are described. But many are immediately listed as threatened or endangered due to habitat loss, disease and climate change.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome species may not even get named before they go extinct,\u201d biologist Zeeshan Mirza\u00a0told\u00a0Mongabay in December 2025.<\/p>\n
Over the last year, Mongabay\u2019s reporters have covered pressing threats facing frogs in all corners of the world. Here are a few.<\/p>\n
Seven rare galaxy frogs (Melanobatrachus indicus)<\/em>\u00a0disappeared from\u00a0southern India\u2019s\u00a0Western\u00a0Ghats rainforest\u00a0after a small group allegedly spent four hours handling and photographing the animals, an anonymous informant reported.<\/p>\n Researchers studying galaxy frogs, named for their resemblance to a night sky, found overturned logs and trampled vegetation at the site where the frogs had lived among rotting wood and stones.<\/p>\n \u201cThese beautiful yet rare frogs are unlike anything else on our tiny corner of the universe,\u201d K.P. Rajkumar, a Zoological Society of London fellow,\u00a0told Mongabay reporter\u00a0Liz Kimbrough. \u201cThis sad event is a stark warning for the consequences of unregulated photography.\u201d<\/p>\n Conservationists released 350 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs (Rana muscosa<\/em>) into Bluff Lake in Southern California earlier this year.<\/p>\n The species was once highly abundant in the region, but in 2023, there were fewer than 200 adults, even following several previous frog releases produced through captive breeding.<\/p>\n Non-native rainbow trout have decimated the species. Climate-driven wildfires and drought paired with a chytrid fungus outbreak have made their survival in the wild even more difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cI think for most species, we\u2019re really hoping for recovery, right? But in this case, we\u2019re trying to prevent extinction,\u201d Debra Shier of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance\u00a0told\u00a0Mongabay contributor Sean Mowbray. \u201cWe have to try everything in the conservation toolbox.\u201d<\/p>\n Three new-to-science frog species were described in the remote Cordillera de Huancabamba in the northwestern Peruvian Andes:\u00a0Pristimantis chinguelas<\/em>,\u00a0P. nunezcortezi<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0P. yonke.<\/em><\/p>\n Scientists behind the discovery found the species during a series of night expeditions between 2021 and 2024. They said satellite imagery from the area already showed habitat loss from fire, agriculture and cattle ranching.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re small and unassuming, but these frogs are powerful reminders of how much we still don\u2019t know about the Andes,\u201d lead author Germ\u00e1n Ch\u00e1vez of the Peruvian Institute of Herpetology\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Mongabay.<\/p>\n