Yesterday was an anniversary – I don’t think many people noticed it.
Does it matter that a small, bright, shiny toad was last seen on Earth on 15 May 1989 – does extinction matter?
, via Wikimedia Commons”]
The golden toad was only discovered in the Monte Verde cloud forests of Costa Rica in 1966, by herpetologist Jay Savage and yet it was gone 23 year later. It, like many amphibians, was the victim of a whole range of threats and assaults from fungal diseases (perhaps made more virulent by climate change), habitat loss, air pollution and short term weather impacts. It lived underground for much of the year and mated in seasonal pools in the forest where the brightly coloured golden, males would compete to mate with the larger red-spotted dark females.
This handsome prince of a toad was described by its finder as looking as though they were painted with enamel paint and ecologist Martha Crump described them as ‘dazzling jewels on the forest floor’ and ‘one of the most incredible sights I’ve ever seen’.
A third of amphibians are threatened with global extinction with the Caribbean area being particularly extreme: in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica four out of five amphibians are facing extinction.
Arguably the frogs, toads, salamanders and newts are more sensitive indicators of global change than birds (where c12% of the world’s species face extinction) or mammals (where 25% are endangered) because their wet skin is sensitive to pollution, increased ultra-violet radiation, fungal diseases and they suffer from the usual threats of introduced species and habitat destruction too. High amphibian extinction rates, the gorgeous golden toad is one of scores of species to have exited the planet in recent decades, are a strong indication that we are not living sustainably on Earth. How can threatening the very existence of a third of the harmless frogs, toads and newts who share the planet with us be sustainable? Indeed, is not the maintenance of species on earth a sine qua non of any definition of sustainable development?
In just over a month’s time, and 20 years after they last assembled there, the world’s politicians will gather in Rio de Janeiro. Last time they were at what came to be known as the ‘Earth Summit’ whereas this time the focus is on sustainable development. Will the golden toad get a mention? Perhaps it should, as its demise is just a single data point in what scientist now say is the planet’s sixth extinction crisis where extinction rates are 100 to 1000 times as great as the natural background level. Not since the dinosaurs stopped roaming the Earth, 65 million years ago, have extinction rates been as high.
In 1992, the world drafted the Convention on Biological Diversity and in the following two decades it has been ratified, accepted or approved by 193 nations from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Only four countries have not got around to adopting this global convention to maintain life on Earth: South Sudan (which has the excuse that it is a very new country), Andorra (a shame, but do we really care?), the Holy See (a remarkable lapse of moral leadership) and the United States of America.
Last time around a Conservative Prime Minister, John Major, went to Rio and ‘got’ biodiversity. When he returned, he and his Environment Secretary, John Gummer, reinvigorated UK domestic nature conservation through funding, speeches and making the conservation of nature a moral necessity. Those were the days when politicians spoke passionately about our stewardship of the planet, how nature should be conserved for its sake as well as our own and how we should even look out for dung beetles. This time, David Cameron won’t even attend the Summit, sending Nick Clegg instead.
Under the umbrellas of ‘sustainable development’ and ‘ecosystems services’ we are in danger of side-lining the rest of life on this planet as an also-ran to the human race, only worth a thought if it is of immediate, quantifiable, financial value to our lives. What sort of a way is that to inhabit a planet? If the golden toad really had been made of a rare malleable metal then we might have saved it, but as it was merely unbelievably beautiful, useless and harmless we let it slip away. We are desecrating the planet not because there isn’t a more sustainable way to live but because we aren’t really looking for that more sustainable way. In the short term, our lifetimes, a bit more desecration suits us just fine; and if every generation acts the same then the desecration never ends.
A global meeting on sustainable development should tackle these issues but I have low hopes of world ‘leaders’ finding a way to lead us out of the sixth extinction crisis on the planet. Perhaps, to focus the minds of the delegates, the songs of the humpback whale or the sound of rainforest trees crashing to the ground as the chainsaws whirr, should be played in the streets, the bars, and the lifts of Rio for the length of the Summit. I wish they would remember the toad that croaked.
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I visited Monteverde, Costa Rica in the spring of 1974, just after the preserve there was opened to the public. In fact there was no trail system yet and the ones that did exist were cattle trails for the most part and unmarked. As a result, I became quite lost and as the rain was beginning to really come down, I was also soaking wet. Walking along feeling rather miserable, I noticed small bright orange objects in the trail ahead that stood out like neon against the dark of the wet forest trail. Approaching, I realized immediately the orange objects were the fabled Golden Toads, which were already considered quite rare. I watched for a while then moved along, not realizing that I would be lost for another 24 hours and would almost die of hypothermia that night.
Tony – welcome and thank you for an amazing comment. How does it feel to have seen a species that no-one will ever see again?
“This time, David Cameron won’t even attend the Summit, sending Nick Clegg instead.”
Apparently it’s not an issue of great importance to the “greenest government ever”.
‘sending Nick Clegg instead’, how depressing is that? Our present Government (and it’s predecessor) is very good at making all the right noises about sustainability – and then completely disregarding them. And to send the oh-so-glib Mr Clegg makes that point to the Nth degree, doesn’t it?
wildgardener – Welcome and thank you for your comment.
Q:Who did we send to Kyoto?
Filbert – I don’t know but I see the UK signed in 1998 when I guess John Prescott was Sec of State for Envt, Transport and regions – so I’m guessing Prezzer. In fact that rings a faint bell… ding, dong. And he was, perhaps this is your point, which I have just got to, Deputy Prime Minister at the time.
Yep. ‘Nuff said.
Why could the UK not make ourselves a worldwide center of environmental excellence ?
Andy – in many ways the UK is already. We are good at understanding biodiversity loss, studying biodiversity loss, monitoring biodiversity loss and causing biodiversity loss.
Fantastic idea Andy – where do we get started?
Andrew – welcome! The Darwin Initiative is largely based on the UK thinking that it can help other couintries solve their vbiodiversity issues. It’s funding for the UK to give its experience to other countries.
All this is both extremely depressing and also very scary.
Giles – thank you. And, by the way, your Guest Blog will appear here on friday morning – thank you.
One of the great, good fortunes of my life has been leading wildlife tours to various parts of the world. I have visited Monte Verde several times, but have always kept to the trails. Going off the trails is not easy, and I can understand totally that getting lost is all too easy. I felt very worried when I lost myself for only a short time at Tortuguero in the north east. There is just so much wild habitat in Costa Rica, and much of it is pretty inaccessible. I have always hoped that the golden toad will re-appear somewhere remote, perhaps in that vast area of Braulio Carillo. I have not given up hope, and my fingers are still firmly crossed that one day there will be a small announcement in the papers that it has been seen again.
Simon – welcome and thank you for your comment.
This time, David Cameron won’t even attend the Summit, sending Nick Clegg instead.
Just think… if someone with a voice and influence went, it could make all the difference. What are your plans for next month Mark?!
Pete – ha ha!
Mark – an excellent blog – one of your best. Profoundly depressing of course, and induces a sense of outrage in me that this could still be happening when the human race, especially the rich western part of it, is perfectly capable of preventing it. Despite the so-called recession we are still infinately more materially wealthy than we were even 40 years ago, yet no-one in positions of power seems willing to consider suggesting giving up some of that wealth in the form of taxes, foreign aid, carbon footprint reduction etc to protect not just species but our very future. I’m sure there are many, many people in the UK who feel the same, and I just wish we could find some way to channel these feelings of anger and outrage into some practical, political pressure and action to change things.
Sue – thank you!
Thanks for this blog for (at least) a couple of reasons Mark.
1 – Its always nice to read something other than birds here (but I get the impression that aves is your speciality!)
2 – You’ve reminded me of one of my favourite books of all time – and I’ll start reading it again tonight. It’s called: “In search of the golden frog” and was written by Marty Crump (and published by Chicago Press in 2000). It is a wonderful account of a herpetologists rainforest adventures and goes into some detail about the golden toads of monte verde.
My sister (who has worked in the labs at the NHM for decades now) gave me the book for my birthday 12 years ago and I shall ring her and remind her of this sad anniversary.
So…. thanks for a super post Mark – more of the same please.
Doug
By the way… I thoroughly recommend the book to anyone of zoological persuasion… read an excerpt below….
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/121984.html
Doug – thank you.