Bermuda's whistling frog and giant toad populations have been dying off and there's no money to find out why, an American researcher yesterday told The Royal Gazette .

For more than a year now Virginia-based professor Dr. Donald Linzey has been looking into the mysterious decline of the Island's amphibian populations, and except for some financial help from Wytheville Community College, the Bermuda Zoological Society, and the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, has been paying for his labours from his own pocket.

With much of this year's field work complete Dr. Linzey now faces the daunting costs of lab work. Heavy metal analysis of specimens is expected to cost $10,000 to 12,000; pesticide analysis is expected to cost double, he said.

"My last trip to the Island (in November) cost me $4,300,'' said Dr. Linzey, "and right about now I'm running $400 in the hole.'' The work however remains critical to understanding the global impacts, patterns, and dangers of pollution and ozone depletion.

Tree frogs and giant toads are regarded as the "canaries of the global coal mine,'' sentinel species that give humankind warning of coming ecological maladies.

"We've got to look at the bigger picture. We're using the frogs as an indicator species and what's effecting them today might in ten or 15 years affect humans as well.'' With over 13 sampling sites spread throughout the Island, Dr. Linzey says preliminary data indicates populations of giant toads are declining and the whistling frog -- eleutherodactylus gossie -- have become extremely rare or have disappeared.

The professor however qualifies his findings, pointing out no work has ever been done on Island amphibian populations and therefore no baseline exists by which to compare data.

Early lab work has also turned up some interesting results. Most of the Island's whistling frogs and toads carry internal parasites, nematoads, which infect the hosts intestinal and respiratory systems.

One of the parasites he says, has never been seen before and early indications are it is a new species of nematoad; "but we only have a male and until we have a female we can't call it a new species,'' he adds.

"I don't think the parasites are killing the frogs, though they may be stress on the populations.

Topping the list of suspects are pesticides and airborne heavy-metal pollutants such as zinc, chromium, cadmium, copper, and magnesium, most of it originating in the US midwest's industrial heartland.

However without laboratory confirmation all Dr. Linzey has are his suspicions.

"I hate to keep appealing for money but it's expensive to do this type of work in Bermuda,'' he said, adding the cost of ignoring the problem could be much greater.

To help fund his work Dr. Linzey has set up the Bermuda Wildlife Research Fund, a charitable organisation under the Wytheville Educational Foundation, Wytheville Community College, 1000 East Main Street, Wytheville, Virginia, 24382.

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