Clock frogs are feared dead after the Danish storm

This weekend’s storm and subsequent flooding have destroyed important watering holes for the endangered bell frog in Denmark. For 20 years, Copenhagen Zoo has worked on Hjortø in the South Funen archipelago to save the bell frog from extinction.

But after the weekend’s storm it looks dark.

“The best waterholes where the bell frogs live are completely flooded and filled with sea water, which is dangerous for them. Unfortunately, I think they are all dead,” writes project manager Lene Vestergren Rasmussen in a press release.

Together with islanders, Lene Vestergren Rasmussen is now investigating whether any frogs have survived. In the zoo’s breeding center, there are frogs from the Hjortø tribe that can help in the work of trying to restore the population, she says.