Researchers have developed simple, sun-heated shelters that allow frogs to raise their body temperatures and fight off infections. These frog “saunas” may bring hope for populations threatened by a deadly fungal disease, according to a new study published in Nature. Researchers found that providing artificial “hotspot” shelters allows frogs to quickly bake off infections by raising their body temperatures. The shelters were constructed using simple materials like bricks and small greenhouses. “In these simple little hotspots, frogs can go and heat up their bodies to a temperature that destroys the infections,” lead author Anthony Waddle, a researcher at Macquarie University in Australia, said in a release. The research team focused on the green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea), a species listed as vulnerable to extinction, which has disappeared from more than 90% of its native range in Australia since the fungal disease chytridiomycosis arrived in 1978. Adult green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea) on brick in the sauna chambers. Photo courtesy of Anthony Waddle. “[The species] used to be very common across eastern Australia; they lived in letterboxes and backyards and really adapted to human settlements, before chytridiomycosis came and hammered the population,” Waddle said. Since it was first identified, Chytridiomycosis has driven at least 90 amphibian species to extinction. Another 124 species have seen population declines of more than 90%. “In the 25 years since chytridiomycosis was identified as a major cause of the global collapse of amphibian populations, our results are the first to provide a…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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