Frog Hotel is thriving, and so are the frogs!

[Sibling Chatty]

http://tinyurl.com/w6maq

EL VALLE DE ANTON, Panama -- The guests in Rooms 28 and 29 at the Hotel Campestre here in this lush volcano-crater town get the full spa treatment.

Daily cleansing rinses. Exotic lunches. Even 24-hour room service.

Specimens of Panama's beloved golden frog are being quarantined to protect them from a fatal fungus.

Thus is the lot of Panama's -- and perhaps the world's -- most unusual hotel VIPs, the darling little Panamanian golden frogs of El Valle de Anton. The frogs, considered so lucky in Panama that their images appear on lottery tickets, are in big trouble. They're on the run from a vicious fungus that has already wiped out as many as 120 species of amphibians in Central America.

So, are they interfering with evolution or are they saving a species?

[The Meromorph]

Both!
And more strength to their arms!

[Griffin NoName]

Good question, like I wonder about mass extinction by natural selection and mass extinction by cosmic event such as an asteroiod hit. I can't get my head to agree with my other head that they are the same thing.

Probably I'm just stupid and this should go in the Easy Questions section.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

That brings an image from the movie 'Delikatessen' (although in that case their fate was quite different).
---
Does anyone know if the appearance of this fungus is related with human pollution? (That woukd partially answer the question about interference with evolution).

[Sibling Chatty]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chytrid

Australian site about the fungus and how to deal with it.  http://tinyurl.com/yav4yp

US National Science Foundation site.
http://bama.ua.edu/~nsfpeet/index.html

Article about the genesis and probable spread of infection, both historic and environmental aspects are covered.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no12/03-0804.htm

Humans didn't cause it, as far as can be found, but we've enabled the transmission.

[Sibling Kephra (Tansy)]

Hmmm.. I don't know.  It was definately wrong of us to kill of entire species such as the Dodo.  Saving seems like the lesser of two evils though.  One side of me thinks "Perhaps saving a species or two isn't so bad considering all we've done to destroy."  The other side thinks "Oh here we go thinking we're God again."

Personally, I like it though. 

[Griffin NoName]

Had a rethink on this one.

Saving a species from extinction by human means is probably more harmless than harmful. But maybe it's an ego trip. Nature will kill them all off if necessary regardless of what we do. I think. Well, it's a theory.

[Sibling Kephra (Tansy)]

Good point NoName.
Perhaps it's even more egotistical for me to be thinking we have the ablility to even *think* we can 'play God'.
Humbleness abounds...

[Griffin NoName]

Right. So that means we can ditch the WWF and its ilks (is there a plural of ilk?),  and spend more gambling online instead...... or something.