1 00:00:12,395 --> 00:00:16,137 I think I was drawn to them because they were totally unique. 2 00:00:16,137 --> 00:00:21,476 There's nothing else like a frog, everywhere you go, a person knows a frog. 3 00:00:21,476 --> 00:00:24,022 I was very fascinated by them from a very early age. 4 00:00:24,022 --> 00:00:29,187 I used to keep them in my bedroom. I had more frogs in there than in the rest of Scotland. 5 00:00:29,187 --> 00:00:34,527 I began collecting them as fast as I could catch them and before I knew it I had hundreds in buckets. 6 00:00:34,527 --> 00:00:39,209 I was fascinated by the diversity of colours of sizes. 7 00:00:39,209 --> 00:00:44,110 All of them have interesting adaptations for surviving in the particular part of the world where they live. 8 00:00:44,110 --> 00:00:52,307 They like cold, wet habitats which I don't particularly like. I prefer heat! 9 00:00:56,384 --> 00:01:00,960 The largest frog is the Goliath Frog from West Africa. 10 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:06,387 It's an extremely robust beast of an animal that can jump in one hop 10 feet. 11 00:01:06,387 --> 00:01:11,277 If I could come back as a frog I would have to come back as a Goliath Frog. 12 00:01:11,277 --> 00:01:15,939 If I had to come back in a different life as a frog it would be the Golden Poison Frog. 13 00:01:15,939 --> 00:01:19,108 Because of its toxicity it's the most poisonous frog in the world. 14 00:01:19,108 --> 00:01:21,727 Primarily it's solid yellow in colour. 15 00:01:21,727 --> 00:01:27,143 The poison from one of these frogs can kill 90 people - from one frog. 16 00:01:27,143 --> 00:01:29,660 I'd be very sad if frogs were gone. 17 00:01:29,660 --> 00:01:36,362 When I'm in the rainforest, the sound of frogs at night is extremely reassuring. 18 00:01:36,362 --> 00:01:38,967 I think it brings the forest alive. 19 00:01:38,967 --> 00:01:46,027 It's really an overwhelming experience to step out into a tropical rainforest during a heavy rain 20 00:01:46,027 --> 00:01:50,175 and hear this cacophony of calls coming from all these different species. 21 00:01:50,175 --> 00:01:53,308 You hear them high up in the trees, you hear them low in the ground 22 00:01:53,308 --> 00:01:57,195 and you can definitely differentiate frogs based on their call. 23 00:01:57,195 --> 00:01:59,275 [Both start making frog sounds] 24 00:02:05,783 --> 00:02:07,713 That's a really bad impersonation. 25 00:02:07,814 --> 00:02:15,165 And i think you don't appreciate what it's like or you can't appreciate what it'd be like if frogs disappeared 26 00:02:15,165 --> 00:02:17,934 until you go to an area where frogs have disappeared. 27 00:02:21,580 --> 00:02:24,928 There are traditional threats such as habitat loss and degradation 28 00:02:26,990 --> 00:02:29,053 and nine out of ten threatened amphibians are impacted by habitat loss. 29 00:02:29,053 --> 00:02:35,595 Seems that as climate change and pan-global disease impacts on frogs 30 00:02:35,595 --> 00:02:39,278 they really might be harbingers of worse things to come. 31 00:02:39,278 --> 00:02:43,178 So now is really the time to learn how to save frogs. 32 00:02:43,178 --> 00:02:48,972 There's an action plan that details all the actions it would take to halt the extinction 33 00:02:48,972 --> 00:02:50,821 and decline of amphibians. 34 00:02:50,821 --> 00:02:55,929 We're developing a variety of projects: captive breeding of species that are affected by disease in the wild; 35 00:02:55,929 --> 00:02:59,121 savings of habitats the frogs depend on. 36 00:02:59,121 --> 00:03:03,022 I think what people can do is tell a friend, talk to people about amphibians, 37 00:03:03,022 --> 00:03:05,255 let people know that this is happening. 38 00:03:05,255 --> 00:03:07,546 Generate an interest and awareness. 39 00:03:07,546 --> 00:03:10,389 I think the more people learn the more they care. 40 00:03:10,389 --> 00:03:16,138 For every success that happens it's obvious that it is possible to save species. 41 00:03:16,138 --> 00:03:20,944 The thing that keeps me very positive and coming into work each day 42 00:03:20,944 --> 00:03:26,561 is that amongst all the stories of species declining and going extinct 43 00:03:26,561 --> 00:03:28,623 there are also good news stories. 44 00:03:28,623 --> 00:03:30,395 There are new species being discovered. 45 00:03:30,395 --> 00:03:34,189 At present there are about 6,000 species of amphibians described 46 00:03:34,189 --> 00:03:37,327 but some think that there might be as many as 10,000. 47 00:03:37,327 --> 00:03:40,088 The fact that there are species out there that we don't even know about yet 48 00:03:40,088 --> 00:03:44,547 is incredible and fascinating to me. 49 00:03:44,594 --> 00:03:50,144 It only takes a success like that once in a rare while to make everything we do worth it.