Chapter 1 by Andrea Guinanzaca

In this chapter, Kolbert also begins with a mysterious note which makes us ask “what happened to the golden frogs of El Valle?” She finds out that the golden frogs of El Valle in Venezuela have gone disappearing at faster rates. She reads a magazine that talks about these golden frogs, she also reads about how there are biologists that are trying to build a special facility for the golden frogs, a place which they call “frog hotel”. In this “frog hotel”, golden frogs are being kept there and fed well. After Kolbert reads the magazine, she decides to make a visit to El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center also known as “EVACC”. There she meets Edgardo Griffith, a man who spent most of his life studying different kinds of amphibians. Throughout this journey, Kolbert learns that the golden frogs aren't the only species that has been disappearing. There have been other frog species that have disappeared in the past years, not just one species but several at a time. The investigation of the disappearance of the golden frogs is later “justified” by an unidentified fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, that has spread through different parts of South America. It is later noted that the fungus is probably the reason why golden frog populations have declined rapidly and why other frog species in different areas of the world have disappeared as well such as in Colombia, Australia, and New Zealand. Although Bd is the essential cause of why different frog species are becoming extinct, Kolbert notes that the only way for this fungus to have spread is due to human travel. An APES theme that this chapter can connect to is humans alter natural systems. This is because population growth enables humans to travel to different areas of the world without realizing their rate and scales impact their surrounding environment. In conclusion, Kolbert notices how humans can cause negative impacts to other living organisms by spreading unusual organisms to different parts of the world. In addition, she also realized that sometimes it isn’t our intention to create destruction because our real intention is to save species from extinction. She uses Griffith as an example, Griffith is trying to save different frog species but little does he know that they’d probably die in glass tanks. She says “... even if Griffith can save individual frogs from extinction, he can’t preserve their natural rainforest habitat.”