A survey conducted in Dominica over the summer revealed that the number of giant chicken frogs, one of the largest species of frog in the world, is at a dangerously low level and they could be headed for extinction.

On their website the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), one of the organizations that participated in the survey, wrote that the survey of the frogs was completed by 28 conservationists who spent a total of 960 hours over 26 nights searching for and counting the frogs. Throughout all the time the conservationists spent looking, they only found 21 giant chicken frogs alive (October 16th).

The ZSL reports that the small numbers can be attributed in part to a fungus called Amphibian chytridiomycosis, which is deadly to the frogs and led to a 99% drop in population numbers when it first arrived in the habitat in 2002 (October 16th).

In their article the Zoological Society of London wrote that while taking the population survey people on the ZSL team also took mouth swabs of the frogs and tested them for the fungus. The conservationists hoped to find out if the frogs had developed resistance to the deadly fungus, which could help save their species (October 16th).

The ZSL acknowledges that this fungus is not the only thing hurting the giant chicken frog population writing, “But the recent survey also revealed how, in addition to facing disease, the presence of invasive species such as cats, dogs and rats, the loss of suitable habitat due to agriculture, quarrying and construction, and deaths due to roadkill all add to the challenge of protecting this species – two of the total 23 frogs counted were found dead on the road” (October 16th).