A global effort to save frogs, toads and salamanders being announced today in a scientific journal started right here in Atlanta.

Two scientists from Zoo Atlanta and the Atlanta Botanical Garden are leaders of 50 international experts who created the Amphibian Survival Alliance for research and recovery efforts. They are seeking $400 million from public and private sources over five years to save species dying from development, disease, toxins and global warming.

CURTIS COMPTON / Staff (ENLARGE)

Joseph Mendelson, curator of herpetology at Zoo Atlanta, helped create the Amphibian Survival Alliance.

BRAD WILSON / Atlanta Botanical Garden (ENLARGE)

The horned marsupial frog and other amphibians may have health-care and biological benefits for humans, according to scientific research.

CURTIS COMPTON / Staff (ENLARGE)

Joseph Mendelson, curator of herpetology for Zoo Atlanta, examines frog eggs in the zoo's amphibian lab. 'Amphibian conservations priorities need to come first,' he says.

Joseph Mendelson, the zoo's curator of snakes and amphibians, is lead author of the article published in today's edition of Science magazine. Ronald Gagliardo, the botanical garden's curator of tropical collections, is a co-author.

"We finally got enough information to come to a consensus where we agree the problem is real, the problem is big and we're not entirely equipped to handle it," said Mendelson, who is also acting director of the World Conservation Union's Amphibian Specialist Group. "If we care, it's time to ante up some money."

The idea grew out of an Atlanta meeting in December 2004. That led to the first-ever Amphibian Summit in Washington last September, hosted by Conservation International and the World Conservation Union, attended by about 200 people from around the world.

According to the article, at least nine — and possibly as many as 122 — amphibian species have become extinct since 1980. Of the more than 5,000 remaining species, 32.5 percent are threatened.

Mendelson wants to model the alliance's response to frog die-offs around the world after the U.S. Center for Disease Control's planned response to the threat of human pandemics.

"When I get a call from Bolivia saying 'I think we have a die-off here, can you help us?" my answer usually, unfortunately, is 'There's nothing I can do for you right now,'" said Mendelson, who has worked with amphibians for 20 years. "We need to stop working independently and stop working competitively. Amphibian conservation priorities need to come first."

Mendelson and Gagliardo led an Atlanta team last year that brought about 600 frogs of 35 species from Panama, where the amphibians are threatened by a killer fungus, to the Atlanta Zoo and the Atlanta Botanical Garden to be studied and bred in captivity. The frogs have started to breed.

It's the type of rescue effort envisioned for the Amphibian Survival Alliance. The scientists prefer, however, to start centers for recovery and protection in the critters' home countries.

"We wanted to see what could be done in a short period of time with not a lot of money as an emergency response," Gagliardo said. In just a few weeks, a zoo in Panama will be equipped to raise their own frogs in captivity.

The botanical garden hopes to show some of the Panamanian frogs in an exhibit within the next three to four months, Gagliardo said.

"It's important to save them because these animals are a critical part of the food chain," consuming millions of tons of insects and becoming food for many creatures, Gagliardo added.

Equally important, he said, is their value in research.

"If we lose these species, we'll never know what kinds of biomedical resources we might be losing in the future," Gagliardo said. "It's not worth the risk of doing nothing."

Mendelson likens amphibians to mini, mobile medicine chests, "chock full of antibiotics."

"Every time the biomedical industry takes a close look at amphibian species, they find a molecule that's important to us," he said. Last year, researchers discovered a substance in frog skin that shows approach against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Mendelson has applied for a $500,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to do research in the Appalachian foothills of North Georgia, which he calls the "perfect climate for this fungus."

"Sadly, we don't know if it's a problem there yet," Mendelson said. "Research is needed in Georgia as much as it's needed in Peru."