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This morning when I read the paper I found an article on frogs that are becoming extinct, wich isn't really new. Well, what I also read was that a great number of these frogs are dying for reasons unkown, frogs that they belive aren't dying from climate change or pollution. The frogs species that are threatened is about one third of all species if I remember correctly.
Well I read that Sience Magazine was going to publish an article about this and that it was alredy on their website. I checked it out, but I got the impression that I had to pay to register, so I didn't get to the article.
Well, I did a Google search and found this:

http://www.universityscience.ie/pages/news/august04/frogs_decline.htm

Maybe this is old news I don't know, just thought I'd share.
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CokeOfMan

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-10/plos-efc092804.php
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CokeOfMan

I haven't heard of it before...
Does anyone know where the fungus came from? Is it just something like the flu for humans, always there with some random large outbreaks?
You've got me interested.

Well, I don't know if you read my later post (Also found this...) wich I belive said that the fungus wasn't the reason of the massive frog death, but that they can coexist with it without any harm. Where the fungus cam from I don't know unfortunately. And indeed it is interesting, but also alarming.
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CokeOfMan

Actually the article does not say that the chytrid did not cause the decline. This was speculation included in the article.
I don't have the references to hand but some very recent research indicates that chytrid is a natural commensual infecting Xenopus and it may have been originally spread via Xenopus use in labs and pets.

The article does mention that the fungus may have lost its virulence and/or the frogs may be evolving a resistance to the fungus. It is hard to tell which as they are not sure exactly what the chytrid does to cause the death of the frog.
However frogs that died from chytrid had skin scrapings taken, chytrid isolated from the scrapings and used to inoculate frogs that did not have chytrid and the newly infected frogs rapidly succombed and chytrid was then isolated from those frogs (fulfilling Koch's postulate in epidemology).

Just some comments.

Ed