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“Its all my fault!” cried Dr. Dan, the obviously upset researcher.
“What's your fault?”
“The fungus! Frogs and toads in zoos started getting sick, and they had this weird stuff growing on their skin. Then we found it in the wild. Soon we found it everywhere we went,” said Dr. Dan.
“What is fungus?” asked Nermit, now very concerned.
“It’s a living thing kind of like a plant. A mushroom is a fungus, and so is the thing that gives you Athlete’s Foot. But we’ve never seen this kind of fungus before. It’s so new we don’t even have an official name for it yet. Basically, it grows on the skins of frogs and toads, and kills them. We don’t even know how it’s spread, but I think….I think….” Dr. Dan covered his face with his hands.
“What?!” cried Nermit. “What is it?!”
“I think all of us researchers have been spreading it!
It’s showed up in America and Australia at the same time, and it seems
like wherever we go, we find it. We handle frogs in one place and
then carry the fungus to frogs in a different place. We don’t know
for certain that this is what’s happening, but that’s what I suspect.”
Dr. Dan seemed very sad and guilty about this, and Nermit could see
why. “That’s terrible!” he said.
“Yes, it is,” Dr. Dan replied, “but researchers are a lot more
careful now, so hopefully, if we are the ones that are spreading it, we
can stop it.”
Nermit said good-bye, and went home. He had a lot to think about.
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With Friends Like These... The Effect of Fungus
So Are Frogs Just Slimy Canaries? Why is this important to humans?
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