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Amphibians-- the frogs, toads, and this little
lesser known group called the Caecilians.

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It’s part of-– they are in a lot of trouble
right now.

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It’s been called an extinction crisis right
now on the scale of the loss of the dinosaurs.

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And it’s happening really fast.

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For a lot of these species, one of their last
hopes may actually be to bring them very quickly

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into captivity and establish populations,
survival insurance populations we call them,

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in a zoo setting or in centers that are actually
based closer to where those frogs live.

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Just because declines are happening so fast
it’s happening much faster than science

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can keep up with what’s the solution to
keep this disease from wiping out these populations

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of frogs.

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For us it was how do we control these diseases
in the captive populations and how can we

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give guidance to zoos on how to better control
those things.

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For our genetics division that’s worked
on this, what they’ve been able to do is

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develop methods to grow skin cell cultures
of frogs, which is actually really difficult.

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The frog amphibian cells haven’t cooperated
in the past.

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So they’ve worked on scientific methods
to try to get those so that it can be permanently

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archived in our frozen zoo.

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Our national leadership grant is very complementary
to what San Diego zoo is doing.

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So, what they are working on is developing
tests to be able to identify disease in amphibians

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but also to cryopreserve, and biobank cells
from amphibians.

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Part of our project and why it complements
it, is we are actually cryobanking reproductive

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cells; so sperm, eggs, embryos and these kinds
of things.

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And why that’s really important is while
you can bank down cells, and contribute to

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studies looking at a whole host of factors,
if we reap-– if we bank down reproductive

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cells with <inaudible> we can actually use
those to generate offspring.

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So they are directly applicable to saving
species.

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So not only are we developing these reproductive
technologies that are having immediate effects

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to restoring populations, but we are also
saving down genetics for the future that can

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be reintroduced even after the death of an
animal.

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The work from IMLS here on this project is
now supported.

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We reintroduced more than 10,000 tadpoles
back into the wild for restoring these populations.

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Any time we lose a part of our biological
system or ecological system, what happens

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is it has unforeseen consequences and often
those consequences are terrible for us, both

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to our environment as well as to sometimes
our own economy.

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And so, for example, amphibians which we are
working with have a tremendous impact on our

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own economy for example.

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There are hundreds of chemicals that pharmaceutical
companies make from products that amphibians

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secrete like biochemicals from their skin
and so forth.

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And they also eat a tremendous number of insects
that we oftentimes view as pests.

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And these pests are one of the main things
on their menu.

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So it protects us from having to spend more
on insecticides and chemicals that we pour

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into our environment.

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And also what happens when you remove an animal
like a flea like you mentioned, or if you

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remove a frog or toad from the environment,
it has a cascading effect that goes completely

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through the ecosystem.

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They contribute to millions and millions of
dollars to the pharmaceutical company every

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day and the next cure for cancer might be
out there associated with an amphibian that’s

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about to go extinct.

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So not only are they important part of the
ecology, but really they can have a tremendous

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impact on our own economy and our health.
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