Video: Save the Frogs' Kerry Kriger outlines threat of amphibian extinction

Frogs are cool, and we need them. They need our help too.

That pretty much sums up what the Virginia-based nonprofit group Save the Frogs is all about.

The group’s executive director, Kerry Kriger, is in town to give a talk on the threat of amphibian extinction in the world.

Kriger, who has a PhD in environmental science, will speak at the Telus Theatre on BCIT’s main campus in Burnaby on Wednesday (August 12) at 7 p.m.

Save the Frogs is an international team of scientists, educators, policy-makers, and naturalists whose mission is to protect the amphibian species.

According to the group’s Web site, one-third of the world’s 6,485 species of frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, and caecilians are “on the verge of extinction”.

The site also notes that 200 species have completely disappeared from the planet in recent years.

Frogs are considered an indicator of the health of the environment.

The Save the Frogs site states:

Most frogs require suitable habitat in both the terrestrial and aquatic environments, and have permeable skin that can easily absorb toxic chemicals. These traits make frogs especially susceptible to environmental disturbances, and thus frogs are considered accurate indicators of environmental stress: the health of frogs is thought to be indicative of the health of the biosphere as a whole.