Will Amphibians Croak under the Endangered Species Act?

Abstract

Herpetologists often complain that, despite amphibians' being one of the most threatened vertebrate classes, there is a dearth of funding and capacity to tackle the global crisis afflicting them. We compared the average funding per species listed under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) to quantify funding favoritism across vertebrate classes in the United States and compared ESA listings with NatureServe evaluations of endangerment in order to examine listing bias. We found that, on average, listed US amphibians receive one-quarter of the ESA funding that other vertebrate classes do. This inequality is compounded by listing bias, with 82% of the amphibians found to be at risk by NatureServe remaining unlisted under the ESA. We recommend that federal, state, and private conservation groups take reactive and proactive measures to build capacity to sustain this important class of vertebrates for future generations.