Frog Long Thought Extinct Rediscovered In Israel

The Hula painted frog was the first amphibian to officially be declared extinct, in 1996. Recently, a park ranger in Israel Yoram Malka caught a glimpse of this frog as it leapt across the road. The animal has a mottled backside and a black belly with white dots. It belonged to a species that most scientists thought had disappeared from the Earth more than half a century ago. The last confirmed sighting of the frog was in 1955, after the draining of the Hula Valley wetlands. Trips dedicated to searching for the frog were launched as recently as 2004, but all to no avail until now. While not bad for a species once thought extinct, scientists think the frog's range and population levels have greatly reduced from what they once were. Scientists now consider the Hula painted frog as a rare example of a living fossil, an organism that has retained the same form over millions of years and that has few or no living relatives. Conservationists however think that despite the Hula painted frog's rediscovery, amphibians are still in danger worldwide, as they confront habitat destruction, pollution, disease, and climate change.

Courtesy National Geographic Daily News