Its always the Americans fault.

Frogs are in massive decline. Partly like nearly every other species this is due of course to global warming, habitat loss and general human shittyness. However, frogs also have to deal with the global spread of a nasty fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (catchy name huh?) which has amongst its symptoms, Death. (for frogs, not humans before you go off into a weird tabloid driven bird flue hysteria...)

Now, the North American bull frog is a strict follower of US foreign policy. In that it has invaded many countries and habitats where it is not wanted. It then goes on to out eat and out compete (and sometimes just eat) the local inhabitants. Now it turns out that the good old bull frog (Rana catesbeiana to its friends) is also a carrier of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis but does not pop its clogs as a result. It just gives it to the local frog population & wipes them out, in a sort of 'collateral damage'. The chytrid fungus has now entered the UK frog population & is doing its thing. But its ok, its probably just another friendly fire incident.

Ok Ok, cheap humour. Especially as the fungus probably originated in Africa & may well have been introduced into the global frog population as a result of British pregnancy test experiments. (yup, they used frogs for pregnancy tests - but I've no idea how. I just have this sick vision of frogs on strings being...no, I'll leave that).

For those of you who are interested in frogs, Jen has some good stuff.