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ST. LOUIS (AP) - Missouri and Illinois conservationists are seeing troubling signs in amphibian populations, mirroring problems seen elsewhere in the world.
Jeff Briggler, an amphibian specialist at the Missouri Department of Conservation, wasn't expecting good news when he swabbed slime off a 2-foot-long hellbender salamander in the Ozarks last year. An analysis by technicians showed some of the state's hellbenders were infected by a fungus that has wiped out entire frog populations elsewhere.
Scientists have known for some time that endangered hellbender populations in the Ozarks have been shrinking. One reason is lost habitat; fungus may be another, they told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in Thursday's edition.
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