Toad-ally Thirsty: Going Out with a Bang

About this episode

This episode discusses the unique reproductive response of the green and golden bell frog to a deadly chytrid fungus affecting amphibians.

When frogs face a life-threatening disease, you’d expect them to hunker down and focus on survival. But nature sometimes has other plans. A deadly disease caused by a chytrid fungus has decimated 500+ amphibian species. Over 90 are already extinct because of it. The green and golden bell frog has an interesting response to it… Conservation biologist Venice Chan studies frog reproductive biology in response to chytrid fungus at the University of Melbourne. We’re chatting about the fact that infected frogs literally go all in on reproduction, putting all their eggs (or rather, sperm) in one basket. Male green and golden bell frogs exposed to chytrid fungus produce more sperm volume and more sperm cells. It’s nature’s way of saying: if you’re going down, you’re going down hard. This episode is toad-ally ribbiting! Originally aired 24th February, 2026. The post Toad-ally Thirsty: Going Out with a Bang appeared first on Science Queeries .

People in this episode

Guest: Venice Chan

Topics covered

• frog conservation
• chytrid fungus
• reproductive biology
• amphibian species
• environmental science

Keywords

• frogs
• chytrid fungus
• reproduction
• conservation biology
• amphibians
• green and golden bell frog
• sperm production

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Melbourne

Places: Australia

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