In the old days, kissing a frog resulted in a handsome prince, but these days a girl would probably get a prince with a bad liver, three arms and an extra eye, that is if she could actually find a frog.

Amphibian species in Bermuda and around the world are in dire trouble. To help educate people about the global amphibian extinction crisis, the Bermuda Zoological Society (BZS) has teamed up with the American Zoological Association (AZA) to make leap year 2008, the Year of the Frog.

"AZA decided we needed a big wake-up call," said local amphibian expert Dr. Jamie Bacon.

In the last several years we have lost ten percent of amphibian species which includes frogs, toads, newts and salamanders and another 32 percent of the world's 5,743 known amphibian species are threatened with extinction.

"There is another 20 percent that don't have enough data but that are believed to be threatened, so we could have up to 50 percent of the world's amphibian species in trouble," said Dr. Bacon.

Imagine night in Bermuda without the peep of whistling frogs. According to Dr. Bacon, Bermuda may have already lost one species of whistling frog, Eleutherodactylus gossei. Scientists are very concerned, because amphibians are an environmental "canary in the coal mine". Their ill health may be an indicator of the health of other species including humans.

"It is irresponsible to think that we don't have to be careful about what our impact is on other living things," said Dr. Bacon. "We are arrogant if we think that we can lose a whole bunch of species and it doesn't matter."

Dr. Bacon said there are enough changes in environmental health globally to indicate a major problem.

"We have extinctions going on all the continents where you are finding amphibians," she said. "When Captain Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and founding director of Greenpeace International, was in Bermuda, he said it is like being in a submarine and you start taking the rivets out and selling them. Sooner or later you are going to take one rivet too many out and the submarine is going to fall apart. If we lose too many species then our life support system is going to fall apart."

Scientists have ruled out genetics as a reason for the increase in deformities they are finding in amphibians.

"With anything that is developing, there are all these chemical signals to tell different structures like the hands and eyes to develop correctly," said Dr. Bacon. "What we are doing is sabotaging those signals through pollution. When this happens, the hands and eyes don't develop properly. This is what's causing the deformities in our toads."

Back in the 1990s, Dr. Don Linzey, a biology professor at Wytheville Community College in Virginia, found there were the residues of metals and DDE, which is the breakdown product of DDT, and signs of suppressed immune function in both whistling frogs and toads.

Dr. Bacon and her collaborator, Dr. Douglas Fort's, recent research found that when tadpoles were raised in contaminated pond water in the laboratory, their immune function was significantly suppressed, which meant they were more vulnerable to infection.

This finding could help explain why the chytrid fungus has been wiping out entire amphibian populations in certain areas. It can get into an area and within two or three years cause an amphibian species to go extinct.

Recently, Dr. Bacon and other local scientists including Dr. Mark Outerbridge expanded their research to see how other species in Bermuda were doing. The results were not good.

Dr. Bacon said, "What we found last year in adult toads collected from four sites was that 69 percent had either liver problems, such as necrotic (dying) areas and tumours, or problems with their ovaries or testes (necrotic ovaries, malformed or necrotic testes) or problems with both.

"Then we looked at the red-eared sliders, invasive terrapins originating from the pet trade that were collected from five nature reserves and Pembroke Marsh. These terrapins are a much tougher species than a toad since they are a reptile. However, we found that 49 percent of the terrapins had the same liver or gonad problems or both as the toads did. The ones from Pembroke Marsh had so much petroleum hydrocarbon in their testes, they were necrotic."

There were also disturbing results for gambusia (guppies) which are put into the ponds to eat mosquito larvae. These were examined from Warwick Pond where there is also a small population of endemic killifish.

"Mark Outerbridge, who has been studying the killifish, said that the population in Warwick Pond looked really in trouble," said Dr. Bacon. "He saw various external problems with them when he was trapping them." Gambusia were later collected from Warwick Pond and examined and it turned out that 62 percent of them were deformed, which doesn't bode well for the killifish in the pond.

One of the next steps for scientists is to look further up the food chain at the health of animals such as herons that feed on pond creatures.

"There is the concern that what we're seeing in other species means that humans could be affected too," she said. "We do know that these same contaminants (metals and petroleum hydrocarbons) aren't healthy for people. And vehicles seem to be a major part of the problem.

"However, is there enough pollution in the exhaust from vehicles to affect people? Do we have a set tie between what we're finding and human health? No.

"But we have to be aware that there is the potential. One of the main reasons why we're trying to understand what is happening to our amphibians is so that we can ensure that human health won't be affected."

Dr. Bacon said she has a feeling of stewardship.

"We are on this planet and we can't be so egocentric that we forget that there are other species. If we have the capacity to be causing extinction, we need to realise that we have the capacity to prevent extinction as well," she said.

Bermudians can do their part to help scientists by taking part in Year of the Frog activities. A 'Leap Day Lecture' was held February 29, when Dr. Bacon talked about her ground-breaking research, what scientists are discovering about frogs and toads, and what these fragile animals can tell us about the impact of modern society on environmental health. In March, children and adults can tour the new Locals Tails interactive exhibit at the Zoo, which is currently being renovated. When it re-opens, the exhibit will showcase the Island's habitats, including those of frogs and toads. And everyone is invited to take part on foot or bike in the popular BZS "Leap Around the Sound" event Saturday, March 8. Check the BZS website, www.bamz.org, for more information.

Dr. Bacon is also looking for people to help with 'Project Sound-Off' an upcoming whistling frog count. Basically, on two separate occasions in May and August people will be asked to go out into their garden and count how many whistling frogs they hear. This will give Dr. Bacon baseline data on our whistling frog population so that we can detect if they're declining in the future.

There will be further information on the BAMZ web site closer to the time but people who are interested can e-mail Dr. Bacon at jbacon@ibl.bm. Local scientists will also try to find E. gossei this spring to determine if it really has gone extinct in Bermuda. It was last seen in Bermuda in 1994.