Another pandemic is currently on the march, and it's got salamanders in its sights. You may not have heard about 'Bsal' before, but it nearly wiped out a population of salamanders in Europe, and scientists worry it could invade the United States--the home of the world's greatest diversity of salamanders--next.

Is the U.S. ready for Bsal, and can a pandemic in this global salamander hotspot be prevented, unlike the one that's currently crippling human societies globally? What's being done, and what would it mean to lose salamanders on a landscape-wide level in North America?

This first bonus episode of the Mongabay Newscast tackles these important questions, just as spring and salamanders emerge in the North.

For the next couple months, this special series made possible by our Patreon supporters called Mongabay Explores will dive into a recent project our writers and editors produced on the topic, to learn what's known about this issue now.

More reading from Mongabay on this topic:

• On the hunt for a silent salamander-killer Scientists are racing to stop a pandemic before it starts – but will they find it in time?
• Mongabay's whole series on Bsal is here
• United States Bsal Task Force website

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