For Leap Day, 35 pictures of frogs

Leap Day only happens every four years but when the next one comes around, the planet may have lost a few more frog species: amphibians are the most endangered group of animals on the planet.
This post includes a set of 35 frog pictures to remind us what we’re losing.
This post is a commentary — the views are the author’s own.

Leap Day only happens every four years but when the next one comes around, the planet may have lost a few more frog species: amphibians are the most endangered group of animals on the planet.

Amphibians are facing myriad threats: climate change, habitat destruction, invasive species, emerging infection disease, and pollution, among others. According to the IUCN, roughly one-third of assessed amphibian species are classified as globally threatened or extinct. 42 percent of amphibian species are in decline.

The global loss of amphibians has implications beyond silent nights: frogs are important predators of insects in many ecosystems, play an significant role in nutrient cycling, and have served as a source of compounds used to treat human illnesses. Beyond that, some scientists argue that frogs’ sensitivity to environmental change makes them harbingers of what’s to come.

Below are a set of frog pictures to remind us of what we’re losing. Most of these frogs were photographed in the wild over the past decade.