Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class, with over 40% of species at extinction risk from habitat loss, chytrid fungus, climate change, and pollution. Their welfare crisis is also an ecological crisis.
Amphibians infected with chytrid fungus experience debilitating skin disease that interferes with the osmoregulation critical to their survival. Death from chytrid infection is prolonged and welfare-compromising. Wild amphibians facing habitat loss, pollution, and climate change experience the chronic welfare stressors of nutritional inadequacy and thermal stress. The scale of the amphibian extinction crisis makes conservation programs — both field habitat protection and captive assurance colonies — urgent welfare priorities. Individual animals in captive colonies require specialized welfare consideration appropriate to their unique biological requirements.