What is it about this human disturbance that may lead to an amphibian species being more vulnerable?
[Mike Adams] We don’t know, and we don’t know if there is a connection. We just found a correlation. There happened to be greater prevalence, and it was the only pattern that we found. There was greater prevalence of the fungus within populations, meaning a higher proportion of the populations were infected in areas with this higher human footprint index. Why that is we really don’t know. [Damon Runberg] How high of a human footprint are you talking about? Would a large footprint be within a city or more like a popular hiking trail? [Mike Adams] It’s a ten-point scale, and I think the highest we got on the scale was a seven. It certainly was not within a city; typically, I think it was heavily agricultural. [Damon Runberg] Since it’s difficult to tell just by looking at a frog if it’s infected, could you describe the process of determining if a frog has the fungus? [Mike Adams] Yes, we catch the frog. We use a little rayon swab, which looks like a Q-tip, that we rub around on the skin.
