Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class globally, with chytrid fungus, habitat loss, and climate change driving population crashes that represent both conservation and welfare crises.
Amphibian welfare combines the acute suffering of chytrid disease — which disrupts the skin's vital ion transport functions and causes cardiac arrest — with the chronic welfare impacts of habitat degradation. Infected frogs and salamanders become lethargic, posture abnormally, and lose reflexes before death. At population scale, chytrid disease has caused mass mortality events visible to field researchers. Conservation interventions including biosecurity at wetland sites, captive assurance populations for critically endangered species, and habitat restoration all address amphibian welfare at different scales.