Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrates on Earth, and 41% of species face extinction. A fungus has devastated amphibians across highland Central and South America. Researchers found that in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, frogs still thrive: at least 48 species, including 25 that live nowhere else.
This isolated mountain range shows that frog extinctions from the fungus are not inevitable everywhere. Understanding how this community survived could help conservationists protect other amphibian populations before they collapse. It also makes the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta a priority site, since a quarter of its frogs exist nowhere else on Earth.
✦ One Colombian mountain range is quietly proving frog extinctions can be avoided.