I would like to begin this edition by thanking all those people that have been involved in making the new FrogLogformat such a great success. Over the last two months FrogLog 97 has received our highest number of online readers yet, with almost 8000 people accessing the Issuu version alone and of course many copies being downloaded from our web site. With your help we look forward to continuing to develop FrogLog into a publication that is both informative and enjoyable to read.
As we outlined In FrogLog 96, the new FrogLog format was phase 1 of our efforts to provide communication opportunities for our community. The next step was the development of a new web site which we are pleased to announce will be going live in the next couple weeks. This web site has been developed in consultation with Regional Chairs in order to produce a tool that we hope will be utilized in a similar fashion to FrogLog. LikeFrogLog, the web site is aimed to showcase the incredible work being undertaken on a daily basis by individuals and groups dedicated to preserving amphibians. The web site will continue to develop to meet the needs of our members and we are always open to hearing about what resources and tools you would like made available.
Finally I would like to thank the many contributors to this edition which focuses on Mainland Asia. This incredibly diverse region continues to provide us with amazing discoveries such as the 12 new frog species and three lost species recently found in the Western Ghats and reported last week in the world’s media. Efforts such as the Lost Amphibians of India campaign, spearheaded by Prof. S.D. Biju, help to draw public attention to the issues facing global amphibian populations and we look forward to hearing of more discoveries from this inspiring team and others like it. We hope you enjoy reading about these and other efforts under way in Mainland Asia.
WHAT’S INSIDE
Contents
NEWS FROM THE ASG
4 New web site coming soon
6 ASG International Seed Grant Award Winners 2011
REGIONAL UPDATE
8 News from Regional Groups
12 Amphibian Population Declines and Chytridiomycosis in South Korea
14 Brief History of Long-Term Research Efforts on the Oriental Fire-Bellied Toad, Bombina orientalis, in the Republic of Korea
15 Saving the Gold-spotted Pond Frog in South Korea
16 Little known endemic frogs of the Andaman Islands
17 In search of Legless amphibians at Goa and Karnataka parts of the Western Ghats
19 Amphibian Conservation Workshop in India
19 More Frog Bounties from India’s Peninsular Mountains
22 A dozen new Night frog species discovered from dwindling rainforests in India
24 Some observations of malformation, eye disease, parasitic and viral infection and the effects of agrochemicals on amphibians in Sri Lanka
26 Amphibian Research in Sri Lanka
30 Species richness and diversity of amphibians in conventional and chemical free agricultural systems in highlands of Sri Lanka
33 Prevalence and distribution of chytridiomycosis throughout Asia
GLOBAL NEWS
35 1st International Symposium on Ranaviruses
38 Checking in with Jamaica’s endangered frogs