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BOB HIRSHON (host):
An ARC for protecting threatened frogs. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.
Most shipping containers found along the Panama Canal are filled with goods and produce. But at the Amphibian Rescue Center, or ARC, the containers are filled with frogs. Smithsonian conservation biologist Brian Gratwicke calls them Amphibian Rescue Pods.
BRIAN GRATWICKE (Smithsonian National Zoological Park):
So we have racks and tanks and air conditioning systems, automated misting systems, special water, that keeps the fungus out and keeps the frogs safe inside.
HIRSHON:
The fungus he’s referring to is a frog-killing epidemic especially bad in Panama’s mountain valleys.
GRATWICKE:
It’s cool and moist all year round, and the frogs there have been particularly hard hit.
HIRSHON:
The ARC project not only protects the frogs, but creates an opportunity for wide-scale research into how animals can be re-introduced into the wild. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.
Story by Bob Hirshon