More than 10,000 Titicaca water frogs have been found dead in South America, most likely victims of pollution.
One of the largest aquatic frogs in the world, the endangered species goes by a unique nickname. It has "amazingly baggy skin, which gives it the common name scrotum frog," says National Geographic explorer Jonathan Kolby, a PhD student who studies frogs in Latin America.
The deaths occurred along a 30-mile stretch of the Coata River, according to members of the Committee Against the Pollution of the Coata River. The river is a tributary of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. The lake straddles the border between Peru and Bolivia in the Andes Mountains.
Authorities said raw sewage was found near the lake.
Although the frogs were found dead on the Peruvian side of the lake, similar events also have occurred on the Bolivian side.
The IUCN Red List declares this species as "critically endangered" and it's believed the highly fragmented populations are all in decline.
When Jacques Cousteau studied the Titicaca frogs in the 1970s it was common. He found individuals that stretched out to 20 inches long and weighed 2.2 pounds, National Geographic reported.
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