(Photo: Brian Gratwicke/CC BY 2.0)
The Rabbs' fringe-limbed treefrog wasn't discovered until 2005, and only named three years later, but now the last known Rabbs' fringe-limbed treefrog is dead.
Toughie the treefrog lived in the Atlanta Botanical Garden, after being flown out of Panama with several other frogs the year they were discovered, when researchers at the time detected a threatening invasive fungus in their natural habitat.
Toughie has lived at the botanical garden more or less since then, becoming the only known living Rabbs' fringe-limbed treefrog in the world in 2012, when the penultimate frog of the species died at the Atlanta Zoo.
But botanical garden officials announced Wednesday that Toughie, too, had died, officially ending the species.
"Found in Panama on an expedition to save animals from a deadly disease, our dear Rabbs’ frog was estimated to be about 12 years old," the garden wrote on Facebook. "It's a sad day here at the Garden as we mourn the loss of our beloved Rabbs’ fringe-limbed tree frog."
The frogs were last seen in the wild in 2007, and have only been observed in cloud forests in central Panama, where, in part because of the fungus, they are also presumed extinct.