Species → Panamanian golden frog
Panamanian golden frog
Atelopus zeteki
What if it disappeared?
Impact HighAt El Copé, where golden frog tadpoles were among the most abundant before the arrival of the chytrid fungus, the loss of 98% of the stream's total tadpole biomass more than doubled the biomass of algae and fine detritus on the streambed, and cut the system's rate of nitrogen uptake by more than half.
DocumentedDetail
Colón-Gaud, C. et al. (2010). Freshwater Biology, 55, 2077–2088 ; Whiles, M.R. et al. (2013). Disease-Driven Amphibian Declines Alter Ecosystem Processes in a Tropical Stream. Ecosystems, 16(1), 146–157.
Experimental electric-fence enclosures excluded tadpoles from certain zones of the stream, confirming that they directly consume algae and sediment and redistribute them through bioturbation. Researchers measured the stream before and after the sudden collapse of all the site's aquatically breeding frogs — the golden frog was part of this tadpole assemblage, though its individual role was not isolated from the rest.
No study has isolated the golden frog's own share of the effect measured in the previous point, which covers the stream's entire tadpole assemblage — and none will be able to do so directly anymore, since the species has not been seen in the wild since 2009.
InsufficientDetail
As with the red wolf and the passenger pigeon, the species' disappearance from the wild preceded any chance to measure its individual role — only the captive population, kept outside its native stream, survives today.
Documentation
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Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project — Panamanian Golden Frog
Accessed August 7, 2026
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Whiles et al. (2013) — Disease-Driven Amphibian Declines Alter Ecosystem Processes in a Tropical Stream, Ecosystems
Accessed August 7, 2026
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Colón-Gaud et al. (2010) — étude complémentaire, Freshwater Biology
Accessed August 7, 2026
Last verified: August 14, 2026