An international team of researchers has developed spa-like shelters to help endangered frogs survive chytridiomycosis, a deadly fungal disease that has already wiped out at least six amphibian species in Australia and threatens many more worldwide.
These artificial 'hotspot' shelters, made from everyday materials like bricks and PVC greenhouses, help frogs fight off infections by raising their body temperature to a level that stops the harmful chytridiomycosis fungus from growing.
Shelters can be cheaply and easily reproduced in the community and will appeal to frogs such as Litoria aurea, once a common sight in suburban backyards and letterboxes.
“The whole thing is like a mini med spa for frogs,” said Dr Anthony Waddle, a Schmidt Science Fellow at Macquarie University's Applied BioSciences and lead author of the study.
“By making hotspots available to frogs in winter, we empower them to cure their infections - or to not even get sick at all.”
The findings offer a potential lifeline for rapidly declining populations like the green and golden bell frog, which has vanished from over 90 percent of its native range in Australia since the disease arrived from the Korean Peninsula in 1978.
Published in the journal Nature, the research was led by Macquarie University and included contributions from experts at the University of Melbourne, University of Tasmania, University of Arkansas, and University of Auckland.
Yorick Lambreghts, a PhD candidate from the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Tasmania who worked on the research, says this new method is a game-changer for protecting frogs.
"The simplicity and high accessibility of this new hotspot shelter treatment provides exciting opportunities for the wider public to get involved in important global issues such as the conservation of some of our most vulnerable amphibians."
Work is now underway to implement hotspot shelters in one of the largest and most vulnerable populations of green and golden bell frogs at Sydney Olympic Park.
“We've shown that it works, now we're putting it into one of the most vulnerable populations where we expect to see immediate impact,” Dr Waddle said.