TRACKING THE VANISHING FROGS: An Ecological Mystery...

TRACKING THE VANISHING FROGS: An Ecological Mystery by Kathryn Phillips (Penguin: $11.95; 244 pp., illustrated). In 1990, a group of herpetologists reported that the world’s frogs and toads were vanishing at an alarming rate. These small, unattractive animals lack the majestic appeal of tigers or elephants, which makes it difficult to obtain research funding. But amphibians seem to be acting as living gauges that indicate chemical pollution, habitat destruction and the depletion of the ozone layer are seriously affecting life on Earth. Her account of the efforts of experts to study the remaining frogs in California, Switzerland, Brazil and Costa Rica offers a introduction to an ecological crisis with ominous implications.