Definitely a trend: kissing frogs during Year of the Frog

On Tuesday, the Newport Aquarium in Newport, Kentucky, will shoot a new commercial touting its new frog exhibit, the Frog Bog. Read this story to learn which “lucky” girl won out over 150 others to be the one who kisses the frog. Recently, a real German princess kissed a frog at the Leipzig Zoo, and before that we had frog kissings reported in Australia.

 

 

Northern leopard frogs in Washingon “probably doomed” by Ebola for frogs

(Photo from Wikiepedia)

This story in the Seattle Times explains that the last stronghold for northern leopard frogs in Washington is being attacked by the “Ebola for frogs”, chytrid fungus. Excerpts:

The infection has now struck Potholes Reservoir in Grant County, home to Washington’s last remaining population of northern leopard frogs. Oregon spotted frogs, found at only three sites in the state, have been hit with die-offs — and the deadly fungus.

State wildlife managers say they’re concerned but have so far not mounted any coordinated effort to better understand the danger or protect vulnerable frogs and salamanders.

“People are ignoring it,” Wagner said. “But can we afford to do that?”

It may be too late for the state’s leopard frogs, Wagner suspects. Habitat loss and predation from nonnative bullfrogs and fish have already hammered the species. The fungal infection could be the final dagger.

“They are probably doomed.”

But it may be possible to save other amphibians, if researchers can get a better handle on the fungus and the way it interacts with the other threats that have pushed nearly a third of the world’s amphibian species to the brink, he said.

 

Real live princess kisses frog for Amphibian Ark in Germany

 

This just in from Leipzig, Germany:  Xenia von Sachsen, Princess of Saxony, kisses a frog and argues for “the same kind of environmental lobbying as ocean mammals or big cats.” From the press release:

Today, one hundred primary-school pupils and twenty kindergarten children experienced an unusual, contemporary version of the fairy tale ‘The Frog Prince’ at Leipzig Zoo: there was a visit by Xenia, Princess of Saxony, who has a soft spot for amphibians, and who demonstrated this to the children by giving a frog a symbolic kiss. The twenty-one-year-old was at the zoo as a celebrity ambassador for the ‘2008 – Year of the Frog’ campaign, at the invitation of the zoo director, Dr Junhold.

 

‘The princess represents dynamism and a forward-looking approach’ said Jörg Junhold, explaining why a young princess was chosen for the initiative, to draw attention to amphibian extinction across the world. In taking part, the princess joins in with the efforts made by Sir David Attenborough, who is the patron of the global amphibian campaign and has already been able to take on board personalities such as Jean-Michel Cousteau and Jane Goodall. ‘Frogs should be given the same kind of environmental lobbying as ocean mammals or big cats’, said Xenia, Princess of Saxony, who found out on the spot which amphibian projects Leipzig Zoo supports. The zoo currently has twelve species of amphibians, two of which are categorised as ‘endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): the Blue Poison Dart Frog and the Vietnamese Salamander. Both species can be seen in the ‘Arche’ (Ark) discovery centre, where visitors’ attention is also drawn to the amphibian crisis.

 

The topic of amphibian protection has never been so relevant. Of the roughly 6,000 frogs, toads, salamanders and caecilians known today, thirty to fifty per cent are at risk of extinction. This makes amphibians the most endangered category of vertebrate at present. The reasons for the rapid extinction of the species are environmental pollution, climate change and the increasing destruction of their habitats, as well as the introduction of foreign species and a parasitic chytrid fungus. This fungus, originally only indigenous to South Africa, is spreading at lightning speed through Central and South America and Australia. It attacks the amphibians’ sensitive skin. Wherever the infection proliferates, up to eighty per cent of animals die within only a few months, which can have a devastating effect on ecological communities.

 

 

 

It’s the morning after Earth Day — now what?

On this morning after Earth Day, check out the new campaign by Amphibian Ark to mobilize people so that we can stop the mass extinction of amphibians. Here’s the news release and fact sheet. Here are 50 ways we can help.

 

Earth Day lessons involving frogs

So for Earth Day, how can our amphibian friends help teachers and home school parents instill the right lessons in our children? Here are some good resources:

National Geographic offers a “Frog Alert! Frog Alert!” lesson plan online. It’s designed for kindergarten through second grade, and it focuses on the effects of water pollution.

Go to a nearby stream and clean up a small section by removing garbage. (But be safe.) Here’s a thought providing activity that the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. did this weekend. As you do the cleanup, you can explain what pollution in our waterways does to amphibians.

Here’s a slew of kid-friendly PowerPoint presentations, courtesy of theteachersguide.com.

There’s a kid-friendly lesson on how to draw a frog here.

And, even a lesson plan on tadpole-to-frog developmental stages using clay and Crayola markers.

Finally, spend some time on the Amphibian Ark Web site to explain the dangers facing amphibians, and have the child sign the online petition.

And, come back later this month for more ideas on how your child can help save the frog. Something big is being planned.

 

Frogster video game asks the question, why would the frog ever want to cross the road?

Just in time for Earth Day: Check out this educational video game from the Vancouver Aquarium. Frogster challenges the gamer to protect amphibians from all of their biggest foes, including pollution and chytrid fungus. Among many other activities created by zoos and aquariums, this is a great way to get kids wondering, learning, caring, and helping.

I did a post a few days ago about the real tragedy of frogs crossing roads.

 

 

 

On Earth Day and the canary in the coal mine: Death is not an acceptable exit strategy for amphibians

“Death is not an acceptable exit strategy.”  

I overheard this on a US Airways flight from Charlotte to St. Louis tonight:

The line was uttered by one insurance executive to another, in the row right behind me. The more knowledgeable of the two was explaining that when a “client” (that’s you or me) takes out a loan on his life insurance, he must pay off the loan within seven years. This particular insurance company won’t allow the loan term to be stretched any longer; otherwise, the odds increase that the person will die before the debt is fully paid. That would mean that the balance of the loan would have to be paid from the life insurance policy’s death benefit. And this insurance company doesn’t want that to happen. Hence, the “exit strategy” of paying the debt after one dies is “unacceptable.”

Well, thank you, insurance executive. You inspired an Earth Day post for the frogs. 

If death is not an acceptable exit strategy in the world of life insurance loans, then extinction is an unacceptable exit strategy for the 2,000-plus species of frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians that are projected to disappear in our lifetime. If unchecked, this will be the most significant loss of animal life since the disappearance of the dinosaurs.

It would be easy to follow the example of the actuarians and simply present these frogs with a contract stipulating that they have to fix their problem in seven years. But frogs wouldn’t understand all the legal jargon. And, anyway, they really can’t be expected to get themselves out of the pickle jar we’ve put them in.

The truth is, we’re the ones who have taken out a massive loan. By living the way we live, we’ve been borrowing against the future sustainability of the planet and the creatures that live on it. And as frogs are regarded as the canaries in the coal mine for our planet’s health, their looming mass exodus has given us our clearest warning yet that we have to pay down our loan, and quickly.

So, on this Earth Day, think about signing a seven-year contract with yourself — and for the frogs — to fix all that you can.

A huge part of the debt to amphibians could be paid off in that timeframe. There is a no-nonsense plan, called Amphibian Ark, that will place the 500 most threatened species into the “protective custody” of zoos and other conservation organizations. Species are disappearing as you are reading this.

The Amphibian Ark plan will put these species into protective “arks” — i.e., biosecure containers that will:

1. protect endangered species from environmental threats that include the frog-killing chytrid fungus, pollution, loss of habitat, and global warming

2. help these “last frogs standing” to breed for their eventual return to the wild

3. allow scientists to find a cure for chytrid through research conducted in the containers

4. buy time for other conservation efforts to restore amphibian habitat around the world — so there’s a home to return to

You can sign the contract, in a way, by signing this online petition to protect amphibians. Then, stay tuned, because right after Earth Day we’re going to come back to you with a list of things you can do to save the frogs. If everybody would pick just one thing to do, it would add up to a lot. It would be like paying extra against the principal on the loan we’ve taken out.

Say it over and over to yourself: Extinction is not an acceptable exit strategy. Thanks to amphibians, we have a real opportunity to start paying off our debt. Let’s hop to it.

And, if those insurance executives are reading this, I hope I haven’t offended you. I meant no harm. In fact, we could use your talents to raise the $50-$60 million needed to complete the Amphibian Ark physical plan. Maybe you could come up with a seven-year strategy for that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cambodians urged to halt frog eating

Cambodians are being urged to stop dining on frogs … because frogs dine on “brown hopper” insects … that dine on rice … and that damaged last year’s crop.  Story here.

“Frogs eat insects, so by eating frogs we are helping the insects,” secretary of state for the Agriculture Ministry Chan Tong Yves said by telephone. “The insects come to eat healthy rice because it is delicious. We should stop eating frogs, at least briefly, so the rice can grow.”

 

Lungless frog — now how did that happen?

We talk all the time about amphibians breathing through their skin, and continually evolving. So it’s not completely a shocker that in Borneo scientists have found the first frog species that is lungless. It’s the Barbourula kalimantanensis. Here’s the article.

So how did this happen? Here’s excerpt from ITWire:

Scientists currently are leaning toward that theory that the frog once had lungs long time ago but had difficulties going from the surface to the bottom of fast-moving water in cold streams because of the buoyancy of air-filled lungs.

Thus, the frogs slowly evolved from breathing through lungs to breathing through their skin, and eliminated the presence of lungs in their bodies.

Scientists already know that amphibians rarely breathe through their skin because it is more difficult to get sufficient oxygen into their bodies than with the process of breathing through lungs.

Only cold-blooded animals breathe through their skins because they don’t move as much, so do not expend as much oxygen.

The scientific community knows of only one family of salamanders and one species of caecilians that are lungless amphibians, besides B. kalimantanensis.

For the lungless frog whose habitat includes cold water, the low temperatures of its water holds more oxygen than warm waters, which is desirable. Plus, rapidly flowing streams allow more oxygen to flow over the body of the lungless frogs than slowly moving streams, which is also beneficial for the frogs.

So, with its habitat being clear, cold, fast-flowing streams, the lungless frogs are very happy living in such streams in Borneo.

 

Frog blog volume triples

Froggy fact for the day, courtesy of the wonderful Google search functionality: From January 1 through March 31, 2007 — in other words, the first quarter — there were 3,371 blog postings that mentioned “amphibians.” Leap forward to the first quarter of 2008, when there were 10,564 such froggy postings, most of them about the amphibian crisis that Amphibian Ark is helping to solve. Stay strong frog bloggers!