Asian Treefrogs: Rhacophoridae

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) lists eighteen species that are Extinct, which means that they are no longer in existence; twenty-five species that are Critically Endangered and face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild; fifty-six species that are Endangered and face a very high risk of extinction in the wild; forty-nine that are Vulnerable and face a high risk of extinction in the wild; thirty-eight that are Near Threatened and at risk of becoming threatened with extinction in the future; and ninety-four that are Data Deficient, which means that scientists do not have enough information to make a judgment about the threat of extinction.

The eighteen Extinct species have not been seen in the wild for at least fifty years, and some of them for more than one hundred years, even though scientists have searched for many of them again and again. One of the Critically Endangered species is the Chalazodes bubble-nest frog. Scientists had thought this species was extinct for 125 years when a population was discovered in a small area of moist forest on a hillside in India. It is still in danger, however, because it only appears to live in this one spot, and the forests are disappearing as people turn them into farms.

The Shillong bubble-nest frog, which is also Critically Endangered, lives in a different small area of India. The frog was quite common in its forest as late as the 1970s, but it has now become so rare that scientists have not even been able to hear a single male calling during the frog's breeding season. Like the Chalazodes bubble-nest frog, the Shillong bubble-nest frog's forests are disappearing as people cut the trees for lumber or firewood or to make room for houses and buildings. Another of the Critically Endangered species, known only by its scientific name of Philautus papillosus, is also facing habitat loss, but this time it is mainly due to mining for gemstones. Miners cut down trees that are in the way of their work. The endangered Romer's treefrog, which lives in Hong Kong, has lost some of its habitat as people move into its forests and marshes but has also been pushed out by the building of a new airport. Ecologists tried to protect the frog by moving some populations. As of 2004, they had moved the frogs to eight new locations in protected areas, and seven of these populations were doing well.