Monthly Archives: July 2011

07/30/11

Frogs Legs: Worldwide Consumption Contributing to their Extinction

Eating frogs legs is a bit of a joke to Americans. Most of us would never consider eating them. Yet we need to take this very real threat to frogs seriously.

A recent article in Scientific American, “How Eating Frogs Legs Is Causing Frog Extinctions,”* listed some pretty amazing statistics:

  • Over two thousand metric tons of frog legs are imported into the U.S. each year. Another two thousand metric tons of live frogs are imported every year for sale in Asian-American markets.
  • The European Union imports an annual average of 4,600 metric tons of frog legs, mostly to Belgium (53 percent), France (23 percent) and the Netherlands (17 percent), the equivalent of about one billion frogs.

The numbers in the Scientific American article come from a recent report, “Canapés to Extinction: The International Trade in Frogs’ Legs and Its Ecological Impact” (pdf), released on July 26 by the wildlife conservation groups Pro Wildlife, Defenders of Wildlife and the Animal Welfare Institute.

According to Alejandra Goyenechea, acting director of international conservation programs for Defenders of Wildlife:

Humans have been eating frogs for ages. But today the practice is not sustainable on a global scale. Billions of frogs are traded internationally each year for human consumption, and that industry is responsible for depleting wild populations, spreading deadly disease, and allowing invasive species to destroy the health of native ecosystems.

This huge demand for frogs legs is contributing to frog extinctions for two reasons:

  • Too many frogs, collected from the wild, are depleting natural populations
  • The international trade in frogs legs and live frogs is the major reason for the spread of the deadly chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis), which has already been blamed for amphibian extinctions around the globe.

According to the report, most frog and frog leg imports to the U.S. come from China, Taiwan, Ecuador, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Mexico and Indonesia. One of the species farmed is the Bullfrog, an American native species that has spread around the world. But Bullfrogs are one of the most notorious carriers of the chytrid fungus. According to Save the Frogs, as quoted in the SciAm article:

A recent study estimated that 62 percent of the bullfrogs entering California from Asian frog farms are infected with the chytrid fungus. Bullfrogs serve as perfect vectors for fungus, as the frogs can survive infection loads of millions of chytrid zoospores. Because the infected frogs don’t die from the fungus, they are able to spread the pathogen to native amphibian populations.

Bullfrogs are usually resistant to the chytrid fungus and rarely, if ever, die from exposure to it. Most other amphibian species have an 80 percent mortality rate when exposed to the fungus.

Exact statistics on which species are being imported and eaten are incomplete, because most imports are already skinned, processed and frozen, making them hard to identify.

The three organizations behind this report are now calling for increased regulation of the frog trade under the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). That agency has the authority to restrict some hunting and harvesting, create humane standards for frog handling and killing, set monitoring criteria for wild populations, and require that all imported meat be frozen, which would slow the spread of disease.

Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked for public comments on a proposal to ban the import of live frogs under the Lacey Act, which regulates the import or transport of wildlife species that are either dangerous to humans or the environment. The public comment period ended in December, but so far there is no word yet on if the proposal will become law.

For more information:

*Information from this post comes from:

Scientific American, “How Eating Frogs Legs Is Causing Frog Extinctions

Defenders of Wildlife: Amphibians in Crisis

Save the Frogs: The Problem with Frogs Legs

07/19/11

Rare Rainbow Toad Rediscovered after 80 Years

Conservation International has announced the rediscovery in Malaysian Borneo of a vanished amphibian: the long-legged Borneo rainbow toad. Below is one of the first photographs ever of this long-legged brightly colored toad.

Photo © Indraneil Das, courtesy Conservation International

Inspired by Conservation International’s (CI) Global Search for Lost Amphibians, scientists with support from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak found three individuals of the missing toad species, up a tree during a night time search after months of scouring remote forests.

The Sambas Stream Toad, or Bornean Rainbow Toad (Ansonia latidisca) was last seen in 1924. Prior to the rediscovery,  the mysterious and long-legged toad was known only by illustrations. The rare toad was listed by Conservation International as one of the World’s 10 Most Wanted Lost Frogs, in a global campaign to seek out amphibians that have not been seen in a decade or longer.

Dr. Indraneil Das of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and his team searched at night along the high rugged ridges of the Gunung Penrissen range of Western Sarawak. They did not find the elusive toad after searching for several months, but the team didn’t give up. Dr. Das eventually changed his team’s strategy to include higher elevations and they resumed the search. Pui Yong Min, one of Dr Das’s graduate students, found a small toad up a tree.  When he realized it was the long-lost toad, Dr. Das expressed relief at the discovery:

Thrilling discoveries like this beautiful toad, and the critical importance of amphibians to healthy ecosystems, are what fuel us to keep searching for lost species. They remind us that nature still holds precious secrets that we are still uncovering, which is why targeted protection and conservation is so important. Amphibians are indicators of environmental health, with direct implications for human health. Their benefits to people should not be underestimated.

Amphibian specialist Dr. Robin Moore of Conservation International, who launched the Global Search for Lost Amphibians to raise awareness of the serious plight of the world’s declining amphibian populations, also expressed disbelief when Das shared the good news. As he said, “It is good to know that nature can surprise us when we are close to giving up hope, especially amidst our planet’s escalating extinction crisis. “

The Global Search for Lost Amphibians, launched by Conservation International (CI) and the IUCN Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG), with support from Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC), sought to document the survival status and whereabouts of threatened species of amphibians which they had hoped were holding on in a few remote places.

The search  took place between August and December 2010 in 21 countries, on five continents, and involved 126 researchers. It represented a pioneering effort to coordinate and track such a large number of “lost” amphibians. The goal was to establish whether populations have survived increasing pressures such as habitat loss, climate change, and disease, and to help scientists better understand what is behind the amphibian crisis.

After 80 years, the rainbow toad is most definitely ready for his/her close up:

Photo © Indraneil Das, courtesy Conservation International

Read more about Conservation International’s Search for Lost Frogs.

07/13/11

Roundup: A Threat to Frogs—and Humans?

At FROGS ARE GREEN, we have been concerned for some time about the weedkiller, Roundup, manufactured by Mosanto, because of studies that have shown birth defects and reproductive deformities occurring in animals, including frogs, after exposure to its active ingredient, the chemical glyphosate. A new review of scientific reports about Roundup by the organization Open Source Earth suggests that that glyphosate may cause birth defects in humans as well.

If you drive to your local Wal-Mart or Home Depot, you might see huge canisters of the weedkiller outside the store for lawn and garden use.  Roundup is one of the most common weedkillers in the U.S., used for agricultural as well as non-agricultural uses.

Soybean field, courtesy USDA

Yet there have been increasing concerns about the safety of the herbicide for years. One study,  for example, conducted by Argentine government scientist, Andres Carrasco, published in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology in 2010, found that glyphosate causes malformations in frog and chicken embryos at doses far lower than those used in agricultural spraying. The study also noted these malformations were similar to human birth defects found in genetically modified soy-producing regions. Carrasco suspected that the toxicity classification of glyphosate was too low and that in some cases, this chemical could be a powerful poison.

How has glyphosate been regulated in the U.S.? Not very stringently it seems. According to the Huffpo article, regulators in the United States have said they are aware of the concerns surrounding glyphosate. The Environmental Protection Agency, which is required to reassess the safety and effectiveness of all pesticides on a 15-year cycle through a process called registration review, is currently examining the compound.

According to a statement given to the Huffington Post, the EPA initiated a registration review of glyphosate in July 2009. It will determine if their previous assessments of this chemical need to be revised based on the results of this review. It issued a notice to the company Monsanto to submit human health and ecotoxicity data in September 2010.

The EPA said it will also review information and data from other independent researchers, including Earth Open Source.

This sounds like a pretty flabby response to a serious issue. Imagine if in the early 1960s the response to the threats of DDT was so wishy-washy? We hope the EPA takes a much closer look at the most widely used weedkiller in the U.S.

*Most of the information in this post is from the Huffington Post report, “Roundup: Birth Defects Caused By World’s Top-Selling Weedkiller, Scientists Say,” by Lucia Graves.