SciShow and Wild Hope describe 'Where Scientists Keep the World's Most Endangered Animals'

I'm returning to the format of SciShow and Wild Hope explain 'How to Save the World from Plastic' by showcasing a SciShow video and the Wild Hope videos that inspired it. I begin with SciShow describing Where Scientists Keep the World's Most Endangered Animals.

This video was inspired by the episodes from Wild Hope, like The Frog Ark about Panamanian frogs, and One Golden Chance about the story behind the golden lion tamarin recovery. Watch those episodes now, and many more from Wild Hope, right here on YouTube-or follow @wildhopetv on Instagram to discover countless more stories of changemakers working to restore biodiversity around the globe. Change is closer than you think.

Even when a species has officially gone extinct, there's sometimes still hope of saving it. Scientists keep insurance populations of endangered animals all over the world with the goal of one day reintroducing them to the wild.

Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)

The plights of the Panamanian Golden Frog and endemic Hawaiian birds are stories I tell my students. That's why I'm sharing Frogs Are Going Extinct - Here's How We Can Save Them | WILD HOPE first.

Many of the world's most beloved frogs and amphibians are headed for extinction, but inside "The Ark" in Panama, some of those threatened species are given a fighting chance. Using innovative technology and breakthrough genetics, researchers have ignited a cadre of solutions to save these rare and cherished species.

The Ark at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama houses hundreds of large, captive communities of frogs, some of which no longer exist in the wild. Here, scientists hope to bring these species back from the brink of extinction and solve the world's worst wildlife pandemic: an amphibian-killing fungus known as chytrid.

In a quarantined lab, these biologists bathe frogs in fungicide and hope to spark a viable immune response from the captive animals. Meanwhile, in the field, other researchers use artificial intelligence to listen to frog songs and identify so-called "lost frogs" that survive chytrid in the wild - any of which may hold the key to fighting the disease. Safeguarding a future for frogs isn't easy, but these tactics in Panama have been so successful that they're being replicated in facilities across the globe. The effort may seem monumental, but the safety and preservation of amphibians worldwide hangs in the balance.

This video is a bit on the long side, but I find it both informative and inspiring enough to show my biology students later this semester, when I lecture on chytrid fungi and the effects it has on amphibians. It also reinforces a point I've already made to them, that amphibians are already at the most risk of mass extinction for any group of vertebrates. Only cycads exceed them among major groups of organisms in danger of extinction, another fact I've shared with my biology students. Should I show this video to my biology students, it will become another example of blogging as professional development.

For completeness, I'm sharing The historic comeback of golden lion tamarins | WILD HOPE, which SciShow also mentioned.

The golden lion tamarin stands as a beacon of hope and survival in the face of extinction after an outbreak of yellow fever led to a loss of nearly a third of their wild population.

In the 1970s, their population dwindled to fewer than 200 individuals. However, a decades-long captive breeding program, spanning 150 zoos globally, successfully reversed their decline. This journey continued as over 800,000 native trees were planted, establishing vital forest corridors to reconnect fragmented landscapes within the unique Atlantic Forest, their sole habitat on Earth.

Regrettably, a recent yellow fever outbreak led to a significant loss of over 1,000 tamarins, imperiling a meticulously managed genetic recovery program. Fortunately, virologist Marcos da Silva Freire pioneered a groundbreaking approach. He rapidly adapted a human vaccine to inoculate almost 400 tamarins, a pioneering endeavor among wild animals. Today, the tamarin population has soared to 4,800 individuals, nearly doubling their numbers before the yellow fever outbreak. This journey from the brink of extinction to recovery exemplifies the potential of conservation and scientific intervention, providing renewed hope for this iconic species' future.

People tend to focus on the Amazon rainforest, but Brazil's coastal rainforest is even more endangered. I first heard about it 35 years ago when I moved to Michigan and the professor of the first class I was a teaching assistant for described how one tree species was saved because it served as a good shade tree for coffee plantations. Otherwise, it would have been logged and possibly exterminated. That's a story someone told me when I was a student.

That's a wrap for today. I'm thinking of observing a holiday like Paul Bunyan Day tomorrow, National Johnny Appleseed Day. It's that or National Shamu the Whale Day, whichever one I can find a better video for. Stay tuned to see which day I blog about tomorrow.