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Battling Online Hoaxes: And Interview with Snopes.com Co-founder; Costa Rica's Rainforests Going Silent; Rodrigo Duterte Admits to Personally Killing Suspects while Mayor of Davao. 8:00a-9:00a ET

Aired December 14, 2016 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:16] KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream.

Now, shelling resumes in Aleppo after a brief ceasefire ends delaying the evacuation of civilians from the city.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he personally killed criminals while mayor of Davao City to show police how to do it.

And battling hoaxes and fake news for over 20 years: we speak to the man behind Snopes.com.

Fighting has resumed in Alepo, Syria after a brief ceasefire fell apart with both sides of the conflict claiming casualties. The evacuation of

civilians and rebels has been delayed by the fighting. And Syrian media reporting that three people have been killed by revel shelling, while an

activist with the Aleppo media center tells CNN that government artillery shells are falling at an average of two per minute.

Now, a video posted on social media from within rebel-held Aleppo, you can hear the shelling in the background. Just take a listen.

(EXPLOSIONS)

LU STOUT: Let's get an update now from Fred Pleitgen who joins us live from Beirut. And Fred, clashes and shelling are straining the ceasefire

that was put in place. What's the latest out of Aleppo?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, you know, it's not just clashes, Kristie, it's actually very heavy clashes that apparently

are going on in Aleppo with the activists there on the ground, some of them counting as many as 100 artillery shells, falling onto that last small

rebel enclave there in eastern Aleppo whereas on the government side apparently several people have been killed by mortars that have gone in the

other direction.

And of course this is something that very much strains the ceasefire that's supposed to be in place and that was supposed to start the evacuation of

those civilians and those final fighters that are still in there. It was something that really offered a glimmer of hope when it was hammered out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (voice-over): After years of holding out against Syrian government forces, and months trying to fight off a massive final assault, the last

remaining rebels and civilians are set to leave Aleppo, allegedly guaranteed safe passage in return for full government control of this

ancient city.

The past weeks have been among the most brutal in the five-year civil war. As pro-Assad forces kept taking chunks of territory away from the

opposition, tens of thousands of civilians fled. A mass exodus under fire that I witnessed firsthand.

(on camera): There is a massive, almost avalanche of people trying to make it to safety. As you can see, there's people who are carrying their

children but also a lot of children left to make the trek themselves. It's so difficult for many of them. Of course, they've been under siege for such

a very long time.

(voice-over): Aleppo is among the oldest cities in the world, Syria's cultural center, and was the country's economic powerhouse. A melting pot

of cultures with a pre-war population of more than 2 million people, the thriving cosmopolitan city was a source of pride for Syria. It was also one

of the first places where the rebels managed to hold any territory in the face of a government crackdown.

After years of fighting, what is left in many places is complete destruction. Whole neighborhoods flattened, including most of the ancient

old city. The rebels' retreat from Aleppo won't end Syria's civil war. Opposition fighters still hold large parts of the country and ISIS is

advancing in others. But the opposition's defeat would mark a major victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian backers, cementing

their grip of what is left of this war-torn nation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: But certainly that is something that still needs to be put in place. And we're seeing those hitches, we're seeing that heavy fighting

that's going on.

And you know, Kristie, this ceasefire and evacuation agreement was actually brokered largely between the Russians and the Turks. And both the Turks

and the Russians are now coming out and saying they're working on trying to salvage this. But of course with every minute going by, and with every

time that we hear of more fighting going on, it certainly makes it difficult and more difficult to sustain, Kristie.

[08:05:03] LU STOUT: And they have to salvage this ceasefire so that planned evacuations, especially for the civilians trapped inside the city

can go on. Can you tell us, why did it fall apart? And is there any hope? Can this ceasefire get back on track?

PLEITGEN: Yeah. You know, that's a very good question. And like in most cases, when something like this happens, it's both sides blaming each

other. The government says that it was the rebels who broke the ceasefire and the rebels say that it was the government who fired first.

The big problem on both sides is that that these are very different forces. You don't just have the Syrian government fighting on the one side and the

rebels fighting on the other, you have various factions. On the government side you have various Shiite factions fighting there, Shiite militias. You

have, for instance, Hezbollah, you also have some Palestinian pro-Assad fighters fighting on the side of government, you have Iraqis, and then of

course you also have the Rusians.

And on the rebels side you have various different groups fighting there, some of them Islamist, some of them more moderate. And it seems as though

they might be a group on either side that doesn't really want all of this to work out. And that's something that the big nations that are trying to

broker all this, and try to keep it on track, that's something they need to work through. But it is very, very difficlt, especially in an area that is

so tense and where that calm is so fragile like you're seeing right now in Aleppo.

LU STOUT: Absolutely. And, Fred, you're reporting now from Beirut, but just a few days ago you were in Aleppo. What did you see there? What has

happened to the city after years of this siege after years of bombardment?

PLEITGEN: Well, you know, Aleppo is an absolutely divided city. If you go in the government controlled parts in western Aleppo most of those are

still fairly intact, although there are some neighborhoods where some very fighting took place there as well and that are badly damaged.

But if you go into those eastern districts, especially into the old town, but some others as well, it is really absolute destruction. There's a lot

of debris lying around on the ground there, there's a lot of buildings that have not only been badly damaged by shelling, but that have been absolutely

flattened. And that, of course, shows that some very heavy munitions will have been used there.

It was a very brutal war, some of the most brutal fighting in Syria's civil war that's been going on there. And of course it is the civilians the

whole time have been suffering the most. And many of them, while we were there, were really risking everything, risking their health, risking their

lives to try and get out of harm's way, because they had been through so much. And many of them at this point in time absolutely week, absolutely

demoralized. And many of them on top of that wounded as well, Kristie.

LU STOUT: And with the ceasefire in jeopardy, the human suffering just goes on in Aleppo. Fred Pleitgen reporting for us live. Thank you so

much, Fred.

Now, for those still trapped in Aleppo, it is a matter of life or death. Now ITV's Dan Rivers is on the ground in the destroyed city and filed this

report before the brief ceasefire went into effect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN RIVERS, ITV NEWS REPORTER: On a day of horrendous bloodshed in Aleppo, President Assad's men are celebrating. The cease fighters emerged from

battle across the city came reports of unimaginable horror.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Assad militias are maybe 300 meters away, probably is not to go. It's the last base. Really I don't know what to say, but I

hope -- really I have -- I hope you can do something for Aleppo people for my daughter and for the other children.

RIVERS: These pictures give a sense of the violence that don't show allege atrocities that the United Nations is convinced to be being perpetrated as

the battle rages. The U.N. claims women and children are being shot. It stop short of accusing Syria of war crimes but if proven, that's exactly

what such massacres would be.

This is as close as we are allowed to get today to the besiege rebel east. We can't see what's going on there with our own eyes but we know through

dozens of videos and testimonies from people still trapped inside.

This is one of the darkest chapters in the history of the civil war in Syria, a day in which every shred of humanity seems through have deserted

Aleppo.

I challenge one soldier about the claims of mass executions.

The United Nations claims civilians are being killed by the Syrian army, what do you say to that?

HANI FANOOS, SYRIAN ARMY SOLDIER (through translator): As you can see if the civilians are being here they wouldn't be coming back. On the contrary,

as soon as they heard the Syrian army free this area they feel safe and uncomfortable coming back.

RIVERS: This is Bustan al-Basha a neighborhood broken by this war where children wander lost along the streets from which they want to play. Life

is slowly returning here five days after the battle to retake it, but no one here would dare criticize the army or speak if the violence it may have

emitted out.

[08:10:12] FATHAYA HASMIL, ALEPPO RESIDENT (through translator): The army helped us. They spread safety and stability in this neighborhood and in the

country, so may God save our president, may God bless him and the army.

RIVERS: But the city has plunged into an abyss where even the most vulnerable children have not been able to escape. And now the biting cold

that the Syrian winter is compounding the misery for those still alive. When the full facts are finally uncovered the fall of Aleppo will rank as

one of the most shameful episodes in the Middle East's tortured history. And what's worse is the world knew that failed to act.

Dan Rivers, ITV News, Aleppo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now, we have seen incredibly harrowing images from Aleppo. And what makes it even more heart-wrenching is when you see what the city once

looked like.

Now, this is Aleppo right here in 2006. It's one of Syria's most beautiful and historic cities. And then home to some 2 million people. And many of

its sites are world famous, like The Citadel. It's said to be one of the world's oldest and largest. It is a UNESCO Heritage Site.

But now, it is a war scarred shadow of its former self.

Now, the ancient market, it once boasted row upon row of gold and jewelry traders. It was a major trading center on the Silk Road. And this is how

it looks now.

Aleppo was also a bustling cultural hub, and even hosted football's Asian Cup qualifiers. That was only in 2009, three years before war broke out.

Now, a startling and chilling admission from the president of the Philippines. Rodrigo Duterte says he personally killed suspected criminals

while mayor of Davao City to show police that if he can do it, so can they. He made the comments during a speech to businessmen on Monday. Take a

listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUTERTE: But in Davao, I used to do it personally just to show to the guys that if I can do it, why can't you?

And I go around Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike, and I would just patrol the city and looking for trouble or something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: President Duterte has led a brutal war on drugs since taking official. Official police figures in the Philippines show almost 6,000

people have died so far, most in extrajudicial or vigilante killings.

Now for more on Duterte's comments, let's bring in our Saima Mohsin in Bangkok. And Saima, I mean this is incredible. Did President Duterte just

admit the he has blood on his hands, that he himself engaged in vigilante style killings?

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He did, indeed, Kristie. And not only does he admit it, he seems to do it with a sense of pride and

repeats these admissions time and time again, an extraordinary admission for a president of a country. We know he did say so before when he was

campaigning to be president, but no one would expect someone to reach that office and say, yes, I killed someone point blank range, and not only

admitting it, but also saying he actively went out to seek, to kill, and I quote -- in that talk to businessmen you just played he said, "I was really

looking for an encounter so I could kill."

As you say, 5,927 people so far -- every person counts, so I'm saying the exact number killed in this war on drugs. And in his state of the union

speech in July, President Duterte called out for the drug dealers to be dealt with definitively to double and triple efforts and to not stop until

they have surrendered, been put behind bars, or been put below the ground.

And he said he won't stop, Kristie, not even for criticisms of human rights abuses, or if, as he put it, guys like Obama -- President Obama of the

United States, of course -- try to stop him -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: That's right. Duterte has brushed away international criticism, including criticism from the White House.

And now we know the real reason why Rodrigo Duterte didn't attend certain sessions at the recent ASEAN summit. Tell us why.

MOHSIN: Yeah, the real reason, Kristie, being that he was frankly avoiding President Obama. He had said, or well not him directly, his

representatives have said at the ASEAN summit, but he was ill and wasn't feeling well. But now President Duterte again in this speech to

businessmen has admitted that he was avoiding President Obama to avoid what he terms an awkward situation.

He says that he didn't want to go into a room and not have President Obama potentially shake his hand, as he said. And he wanted to avoid any kind of

awkward confrontation with the president. And that's because, of course, the criticism that he was expecting from the White House, from President

Obama directly during the bilateral talks that were due to take place between the two.

And so we have heard that President Obama was hoping to raise the issue of this war on drugs, and these extrajudicial killings that Human Rights Watch

and other human rights organizations around the world, as well as in the Philippines, have been raising as a huge amount of concern, and not just

human rights organizations, Kristie, but also President Duterte's own politicians and own party. The deputy president also, in fact, stepped

down recently because of this war on drugs.

Not saying it doesn't need to be tackled, but it's how he is tackling it that's a concern -- Kristie.

[08:15:59] LU STOUT: And finally, Saima, with Rodrigo Duterte in the spotlight, you have new information about his health. What have you

learned?

MOHSIN: Yeah. Yet another extraordinary admission. In fact, he went on to list a number of ailments that hes' suffering from, including

restriction of blood flow to his feet, an esophageal problem linked to smoking, and crucial top of that list of ailments, he said that he suffers

from migraines and headaches and has been taking Fentanyl.

Now Fentanyl, Kristie, is not only a cancer drug, but it's an opioid. It's narcotics medicine. And he said that he was prescribed to only take a

quarter, but was taking a whole strip and when his doctor found out he told him to stop, because it could affect his cognitive ability, an

extraordinary and very open admission -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yeah, a very -- another eyebrowing raising comment from Rodrigo Duterte. Saima Mohsin reporting live for us. Thank you.

Now, you're watching News Stream. And still ahead on the program, some U.S. lawmakers are voicing concern about Donald Trump's pick for secretary

of State. And we'll give you further explanation about why he is so controversial.

Also ahead, debunking internet rumors and fake news. We look at how one website is trying to stop the spread of misinformation online.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, you're back watching News Stream.

Now, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is standing by his pick for Secretary of State: the ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson. But critics say the

oil exec is too cozy with Russia. Sunlen Serfaty has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT-ELECT: A great diplomat, a strong man, a tough man.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In Wisconsin, Donald Trump defending his choice for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson.

[08:20:04] TRUMP: Rex will be a fierce advocate for America's interests around the world.

SERFATY: Trump talking up the Exxon CEO after facing backlash from both sides of the aisle over Tillerson's ties to Russia, especially now in the

wake of the CIA's finding that Moscow meddled in the election.

TRUMP: Rex is friendly with many of the leaders in the world that we don't get along with. And some people don't like that. They don't want him to be

friendly.

SERFATY: The president-elect now filling most major positions for his administration.

TRUMP: I believe we're in the process of putting together one of the great cabinets, certainly a cabinet with the highest IQ.

SERFATY: Trump tapping freshman Republican Congressman Ryan Zinke as interior secretary and one-time rival former Texas governor Rick Perry for

energy secretary. Perry now set to run the energy department after trying to suggest eliminating it altogether but forgetting to name the department

during this 2011 presidential debate.

RICK PERRY, (R) FORMER TEXAS GOVERNOR: The third agency of government

I would do away with the education, the commerce -- let's see. I can't. The third one, I can't. Sorry. Oops.

SERFATY: It's confirmed the top four picks of Trump's administration will be led by white males, a first for any administration since 1989. As

sources say, some Trump loyalists are expressing frustration over being shut out after supporting Trump's campaign from its early days. But the

president-elect giving conditional praise to his one-time antagonist House Speaker Paul Ryan during their first joined appearance.

TRUMP: He's like a fine wine. Every day goes by I get to appreciate his genius more and more. Now, if he ever goes against me, I'm not going to say

that, OK.

SERFATY: The relationship warming up since Trump's victory.

REP. PAUL RYAN, (R-WI) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I want to thank Donald Trump. I want to thank Mike Pence for helping Wisconsin,

Michigan, Pennsylvania, the Midwest finally see the light of day and put a Republican back in the White House.

SERFATY: Trump, though, continuing to attack the media.

TRUMP: They're very dishonest people.

SERFATY: But happy to pose for cameras when meeting briefly with rapper Kanye West at Trump Tower in New York City.

KANYE WEST, RAPPER: I just want to take a picture right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that was Sunlen Serfaty reporting.

Now just hours from now, Donald Trump will host tech industry giants in New York. And the list is impressive. You've got senior executives from

Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, almost all the big names in tech will meet the president-elect.

But this is a group that largely opposed Trump on the campaign trail. And Trump himself attacked many of them on social media.

In fact, in February, Trump called for a boycott of all Apple products after the company refused to unlock a terrorist iPhone for authorities.

And last year, he criticized Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, saying that she should spend more time on the stock price and less on her ego. Now,

curiously, the one tech giant not attending is the one Trump uses the most. Twitter was not invited.

Now, there has been a lot of talk about the role technology played in influencing the U.S. election. Fake news stories went viral about both

candidates. And some were shared millions of times on Facebook.

Now the son of Trump cabinet pick Michael Flynn tweeted about a fake story known as Pizzagate, which lead to him resigning from Trump's transition

team.

It was this crazy conspiracy theory involving Hillary Clinton that spurred one man to show up with a gun at a pizza restaurant in Washington.

But how do we know if a news story is fake when there are so many of them out there? Earlier, I talked to the co-founder of Snopes.com, a website

about internet rumors and stories of questionable origin. And he started by asking him how he distinguishes fake and true stories.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MIKKELSON, CO-FOUNDER, SNOPES.COM: Some things are very simple. If it's, you know, claiming that somebody said in particular saying you can,

you know, find a transcript of the interview, see whether it matches. A lot of things are more complicated, when they are sort of anonymously

posted message that don't have a lot of detail about time or place and you've got to try and track down and find out who was responsible and try

and contact them.

Generally, what we write about are the things most people are asking about and searching for. We don't make judgments about what's too ridiculous or

silly or we don't decide what's important is what the audience is looking for.

LU STOUT: So, you don't have an agenda. You're reactive. How many people do you have on staff? And how long does it take to debunk a fake news

story or a hoax?

MIKKELSON: Well, we have about eight people on the editorial staff right now. Some hoaxes are what we call fake news, real fake news is pretty easy

to do in a couple of minutes if it's fake news coming from a fake news site, you don't really need to say much more.

Other things where people are really running elaborate hoaxes or taking great pains to cover their tracks and be deceptive, it can take several

days or sometimes weeks or sometimes never, depending on how well they did it.

LU STOUT: And over the years for your work at Snopes.com, you've been accused for being a shill for big business, or some sort of shadowy

organization, but you are a completely independent organization. Is that right?

MIKKELSON: That is correct. Yes, we're not funded by George Soros or the Democratic National Committee or anyone else, we are and always have been

just supported by the online advertising that we run.

LU STOUT: And you've been around since 1994, 1995, the early days of the internet. I mean, that was when Bill Clinton was in office. So that also

means that hoaxes and fake news has been around since the past 20 years plus. What does that say about us and why we fall for fake news?

MIKKELSON: Well, we didn't quite start out that way. It was originally it was writing about urban legends and things that weren't what we would now

call fake news. It's a sort of -- it was an early adopter of the internet sort of quickly became the go-to place for anything that was questionable.

But, as I like to say, all these phenomena we're dealing with have been around for ages, years, decades. It's only the technology that changes. I

mean, newspapers ran completely made up stories back in the 19th Century to garner readership. Political campaigns have always been full of

misinformation, you know, and campaign speeches and political rallies and the literature they put out and the television commercials and campaign

operatives and partisans spreading false rumors about the opposition. It's just taking a slightly different form. It's -- you can do it faster and

get it across to a broader audience more quickly, but it's not really a new phenomenon.

LU STOUT: Yeah, is it -- I mean, fake news, as you point out, has been around for a very long time. But especially in the last 10 years did you

see with the rise of social media, Facebook, what they call the attention economy, has that really accelerated the rise of fake news and added to

your workload at Snopes.com?

MIKKELSON: Well, sort of. Fake news is now kind of an umbrella term for a lot of things.

And really fake news is just stuff that's completely made up out of whole cloth to try and drive click throughs and revenue. And I mean at least in

the online world, that's a fairly recent phenomenon sort coinciding with the rise of social media.

But a lot of what's now being called fake news is, you know, propaganda, bad journalism, slanted or partisan reporting, and again that's been

around for ages, it's just, again, in different forms.

And now we're seeing it playing out on the internet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that was Snopes.com co-founder David Mikkelson speaking to me there.

Now, he also told me the most popular story on his site is about a hoax that Facebook plans to charge users a monthly fee. So, if anyone ever

sends you an email claiming that, you'll know it's wrong.

You're watching News Stream. Still to come on the program, the Russian perspective on the horror unfolding in Aleppo. We're live in Moscow next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(HEADLINES)

[08:32:28] LU STOUT: Now, let's bring in our Matthew Chance with what Moscow is saying about the crisis in Aleppo. And Matthew, we know that

Russia, along with Turkey, brokered the ceasefire that's currently now in jeopardy, so what is the latest word from the Kremlin about the situation?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Russian foreign ministry issued a statement within the past few minutes basically saying

that the situation is expected to calm, the violence is expected to come to an end within the next two or three days, that's what Sergey Lavrov

reporters here in Moscow. He's, of course, the Russian foreign minister.

And he said that an opportunity is being given -- I'm kind of paraphrasing him here -- for all fo the militants inside, the rebels inside of Aleppo to

leave the city and that any that choose to remain, he said, well that will be their choice, implying that, you know, at some point there is going to

be a full-on push. I mean, he didn't say this expressly, but you get the impression from listening to him that there's going to be a full-on push, a

final push, to take Aleppo fully into the control of Syrian government forces, of course that is likely to be backed by at the very least Russian

air power, also possibly by Russian special forces as well.

It's interesting, because in the past few days, Russia very rarely mentions its special forces that operate inside Syria, but in the past few days

there was a whole big, you know, video story on Russian state television about what they get up to there and showing quite explicit images of them

attacking jihadis and really making a difference -- well, they say are jihadis, and really making a difference on the battlefield.

And, you know, the expectation is that these special forces are playing a decisive role, not just in Aleppo, but elsewhere around Syria as well.

And so, yes, I mean, the situation obviously not what was expected. The expectation, if we listen to what Vitaly Churkin, the UN ambassador from

Russia, had to say a few days ago. He said that, look, the violence has effectively come to an end, but obviously it is not a done deal in Aleppo

yet and there is still a great deal of resistance which I expect the Russians are feeling they will have to deal with.

LU STOUT: Yeah, not a done deal in Aleppo yet, but Aleppo is on the verge of falling, and many looking ahead with what that means for the crisis and

the civil war in Syria. We know that Assad has been relying on Russia. And we also know that with Donald Trump, we're going to have a U.S.

administration that is friendly with Vladimir Putin and wants to cooperate with Russia against terrorism in Syria.

So, after Aleppo and beyond, what does this mean for the future of the conflict in Syria?

[08:35:09] CHANCE: Well, in terms of what Russia does next when it comes to the Syrian conflict, I mean, look it's already achieved -- and Aleppo

will consolidate this -- but it's already achieved its prime objective, if you like, in Syria, which is to bolster its long-time ally Bashar al-Assad

and to make sure he does not fall.

Remember, before the -- we sometimes forget this, but before the Russian intervention, Assad was really backed into a corner and he faced a very

strong probability that he was not going to be able to survive. But that regime was not going to be able to last.

The Russians intervened in what they saw was a vacuum and propped him up, and they've turned that whole situation around now in a virtually

unassailable position.

Now, there's no reason why -- I think others have commented on this as well -- why Russia should stop now, why Russia shouldn't continue to back, along

with the allies of the Syrian government, continue to back Bashar al-Assad in further making territorial gains across the country.

LU STOUT: Matthew Chance reporting live for us from Moscow. Thank you.

Now, you're watching News Stream. And if you've ever been in a rain forest, you may have noticed just how loud it could be, but now scientists

now say rain forests are falling silent. We'll tell you why after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back. You're watching News Stream.

And, please say hello to this, the strawberry poison dart frog. Now, these tiny creatures are incredible, but they are vanishing at alarming rates

from Central America. And they're disappearance has one very noticeable effect.

Now Costa Rica is normally loud. It has these bustling rain forests, but they now have fallen silent.

And scientists warn that this is the sound of the world's sixth era of extinction. John Sutter has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN SUTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In a Costa Rican rainforest it sounds not sight that's helping some researchers track the disappearance of

amphibians. These creatures are vanishing at an alarming rate and their plight may be a window into the troubled future of all species on earth.

Out here in the Costa Rican rainforest ecologist Bryan Pijanowski is setting up high tech microphones to listen for the sound of extinction.

BRYAN PIJANOWSKI, ECOLOGIST: What sort of frogs which are affected here. And a lot of tree frogs out hear probably strawberry and plain dark frog.

I'm listening to what I call the rhythm of nature or its tempo re-entered the (Inaudible) of the insects, and if they're there it tells me that is

basically how the ecosystem, if they're not there I get to be very worried.

STEVEN WHITFIELD, ECOLOGIST: In the past 30 years or so, we've seen really dramatic really rapid extinctions for frog populations all over the world.

Many of these extinctions are due to have with that loss, but other extinctions have occurred in pristine rainforests like these, places that

look healthy but the frog who are climbing upstairs is something clearly wrong.

SUTTER: For frogs, climate change and a killer fungus called chytrid which humans help spread around the world are causing much of the problem.

There are several poison calling right around here do you think that we can track one down?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SUTTER: All right. To try to understand it Steven Whitfield spent years walking through the rainforest here at La Selva Biological Station.

[08:40:02] WHITFIELD: Oh, here it is.

SUTTER: Counting and observing frogs what is the sound you found here.

WHITFIELD: There is a frog that koak, koak, koak, koak, that's the frog if you can hear from a fairly long distance. There we go again. Yes.

SUTTER: He'll be the first to tell you that it's not easy work.

WHITFIELD: There have been many occasions where I'm doing surveys for frogs and I'll hear one call and spend half an hour or more looking into a small

patch of vegetation knowing that it's right there and that I need to find it but unable to see it.

SUTTER: That's when Pijanowski comes in. He and collaborators from around the world have been installing microphones sensors on the forest floor and

up high in the cantabile. The goal, listen for changes that biologist like Whitfield might not be able to see.

How many of these sensors are on the forest here?

PIJANOWSKI: At the height of our study we have 34.

SUTTER: Wow. OK. It could become a record of extinction. Pijanowski has audio recordings for this forest dating back to 2008, and already he's

hearing signs of trouble. He showed me how to use this computer algorithms to analyze the sound and pick out the species tribes. He visualizes these

massive audio files can search called spectrogram.

PIJANOWSKI: When you are in tropics you're looking at spectrogram, it's full, it's rich because we have thousands of animals here, but when I see

something like a spectrogram like this where we have this large gap and it's dark, these kinds of difference are ones that you begin to ask serious

questions.

SUTTER: But there are some trend so obvious that Pijanowski hears them before the computers do. he tells me that in 2015 he was alarmed at how

quite the forest sounded. Take a listen to this file from 2008. And then another from 2015 recorded in similar conditions.

Those are just two moments but look how clear the difference becomes when you look at nearly a years' worth of recordings. You can see the animals

making more noise in red. Again, here is 2008 and 2015.

Pijanowski says it's too early to draw a scientific conclusions but he is frightened.

PIJANOWSKI: I'm worried that this would potentially a crystic fossils. In other words, the animals that are in these finals are no longer aligned.

The only record that we have with some of their presence is an audio recording. That is somewhat disturbing to me as a scientist. They are not

as (inaudible) as species not in this planet.

SUTTER: What happens if they're gone?

PIJANOWSKI: I mean, some of the theoretical work that we're doing in ecology suggest that we could have ecosystem collapse and that's not good.

You don't want to start removing organisms and expect that the ecosystem can survive and function in a healthy way. It could very well mean that

some of the things that we are much more at emotionally attach to are lost.

SUTTER: Do you feel like you've already heard this extinction is turning?

PIJANOWSKI: I think so. You know, I've been out listening for about 15 to 20 years and making a record of it through these recordings. There is

evidence of that, there is evidence all around the world and just about every ecosystem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: A beautifully filmed report of a tragic reality.

And that is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. And World Sport with Alex Thomas is next.

END