Author Archives: Susan

11/19/10

10 Frogs Handsome Enough to Kiss

While researching our post The 10 Weirdest and Most Unusual Frogs on Earth , we found so many beautiful frogs we decided to give them their own post. Below are 10 of the handsomest princes of the amphibian world.

1. Red-Eyed Tree Frog (Agalychis callidryas)

This frog might be called The Planet’s Most Beautiful Frog. It has been a pin-up on dozens of wildlife calendars and cards. But its beauty has a purpose—to help it to survive. When at rest, the frog’s eyes are closed. But if disturbed, the sudden appearance of its bright red eyes may startle a predator for a second or two—enough time for the frog to leap away. With its large toe pads and long thin limbs, it can climb trees easily. The Red-Eyed Tree Frog lives in tropical forests from southern Mexico through much of Central America. We used this frog on a poster we created to help spread awareness of the global amphibian crisis (you can download the poster for free):

Red-eyed Tree Frog from IStockPhoto.com

2. Golden toad (Bufo periglenes)

The Golden Toad became extinct 30 years after its discovery in 1976. They were found only in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve of Costa Rica, where hundreds would breed in shallow forest pools. The Golden Toad has become a symbol of  the plight of frogs and toads worldwide—we don’t want other amphibians to suffer the same fate as this beautiful creature.

Golden toad, photo by Charles H. Smith, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

3. White’s tree frog (Litoria caerula)

These handsome frogs seem to have a perpetual smile on their faces. White’s tree frogs are often kept as pets, but they are happiest when left alone in their native home: the woodland and scrub close to water in northeast Australia and New Guinea.

courtesy of www.frognet.org

4. Strawberry poison dart frog (Dendrobates pumilio)

This frog has a bright red head and body speckled with black spots. Because of its blue legs, it is also called the Blue Jeans Frog. Like many brilliantly-colored animals, the frogs’ bright color serves as a warning—Don’t eat me or you’ll be sorry! It forages on the forest floor eating small ants and termites, from which it derives the chemicals needed to synthesize the poison. It lives in tropical rainforests of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.

5. Ranitomeya amazonica

A recent report from the World Wildlife Fund highlighted the amazing discoveries of the past decade in the Amazonian biome. According to the report, between 1999 and 2009 more than 1,200 new species of plants and vertebrates were discovered in the Amazon – a rate of one new species every three days – confirming the Amazon as one of the most diverse places on Earth.  Ranitomeya amazonica, another beautiful poision dart frog , is one of the most extraordinary of these newly discovered species. Its main habitat is lowland moist forest near the Iquitos area in Peru.

photo copyright AFP/HO/File/Lars K

6. Malagasy Rainbow Frog (Scaphiophryne gottlebei)

One of the most beautiful of the Madagascan frogs, the Malagasy Rainbow Frog  is adapted for a burrowing lifestyle. It is able to live under the ground for up to 10 months.  But it also has claws on its forefeet to help it cling to vertical canyon walls to escape floods or predators.  Unfortunately thousands of these frogs are captured every year for the pet trade.

image from Wikipedia, by Franco Andreone

7. Venezuelan Glass Frog (Cochranella helenae)

This lovely frog, native to the subtropical or tropical most lowland forests and rivers of Venezuela has translucent skin, to help hide it among the leaves.

Photo by Cesar Luis Barrio Amoros, courtesy of Amphibian Ark

8. Tiger frog (Hyloscritus tigrinis)

The Tiger Frog was discovered in 2007 in Southwestern Colombian. Little is known about the frog except that it is not believed to be toxic. Rather with its bright coloring, the frog seems to be mimicking other poisonous animals to deter predators. This gorgeous frog is threatened by destruction of the forests where it lives.

photo copyright Francisco Jose Lopez-Lopez, courtesy of www.arkive.org

9. Harlequin frogs (Atelopus varius)

Harlequin frogs are usually black or brown with spots or streaks that can be a combination of yellow, orange, red, blue, or green.  They live in the moist, tropical forests in Central and southwestern South America. About two-thirds of over 110 species of these brightly-colored frogs have vanished since the 1980s. Their decline is attributed to the destruction of their native forests, collection by the pet trade, and fungal infection (chytrid fungus).

image copyright Forrest Bren for the New York Times

10. Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica)

The Wood Frog’s beauty is more subtle that that of its tropical cousins, yet its colors seems to mimic the color of rocks, bark, and fallen leaves in the forests in which it lives.  This frog is America’s most northernmost species, ranging from northeast USA to the Arctic Circle in Alaska and Canada. Wood Frogs have already begun hibernating. First they find a place under the leaf litter or in a crack in a log or rock to settle for their winter nap. They’ll slowly begin to freeze as soon as temperatures reach the freezing point. Then the frog’s blood will stop flowing, its lungs, heart and muscles will stop functioning, and ice will fill the body cavity: they will go from frog to frogsicle, until they begin to thaw in the warm temperatures of spring.

Wood frog, photo by John Rounds

Some of the information from this post came from Frogs and Toads (a Golden Guide) by Dave Showler, illustrated by Barry Croucher/Wildlife Art Ltd.

11/10/10

Bullfrogs and other Super Species – Will They Soon Dominate Our Planet?

Super species are the phenomenally successful invasive creatures—animals, plants, and microbes—that are dominating ecosystems around the globe. Feral pigs are relentlessly trampling across Europe, North America, and Australia. Jellyfish are dominating the world’s oceans, clogging fishing nets. Not to mention the invasive species that are in our own backyards:  house sparrows and eastern gray squirrels.

In Super Species: The Creatures That Will Dominate the Planet (Firefly Books, published October 2010) Garry Hamilton details the fascinating stories of the species that seem to have won the natural selection sweepstakes. Some of these super species include the European green crab, the giant African land snail, the Argentine ant, nutria, zebra mussels, the chytrid fungus, and killer algae.

One of the species he describes, the invasive American bullfrog, especially concerns us at Frogs Are Green. Hamilton contends that bullfrogs are more invasive than Australia’s notorious cane toads. The reasons are many—bullfrogs were shipped around the world for use as biological control agents, as pets, or for sport.

Frog farms have also led to their introduction to nonnative areas. In the late 1800s after gold miners out West ate their way through native frogs, entrepreneurs imported American bullfrogs from back East to satisfy the increasing demand. Eventually farming bullfrogs spread to other parts of the world as well.

As Hamilton describes it, bullfrog farming isn’t easy and many of the frogs in these “farms” were let loose. Most frogs wouldn’t have survived. But like many invasive species, bullfrogs are highly adaptable. Bullfrogs like deep, stable, non-moving aquatic habitats. This describes many human-modified environments: reservoirs, farm ponds, irrigation channels, and even garden water features.

Bullfrogs can survive through cold Ontario winters and the extreme heat of Southern U.S. summers. Female bullfrogs can produce between 6000 and 7000 eggs and as they mature, up to 25,000 eggs per clutch. As carnivorious amphibians, they prey on fish, water beetles, snails, turtles, bats, voles, ducklings, snakes, lizards, and salamanders.

Bullfrogs compete with and prey on native frogs. This is one of the contributing factors to the worldwide decline of amphibians. Bullfrogs may also be helping to spread the deadly chytrid fungus, which is devastating frog populations around the world.

Attempts to deal with invasive bullfrogs have been challenging. But scientists have found that their numbers are fewer in waterways that haven’t been altered by people. As Hamilton writes, “By changing the physical parameters of a freshwater wetland, humans also change the playing field for all life-forms in the ecosystem, and this results in a cascade of ecological readjustments.”

The answer, Hamilton contends, is not to use the old methods such as killing the frogs and draining ponds. Rather, he says that in order to save native frogs, we need to save their habitats. Altering habitats is conducive to an invasion of bullfrogs.

I had mixed feelings reading about invasive bullfrogs. I like coming across them in ponds in the woods of upstate New York (one of their original habitats), their eyes peering just above the water, as they croak a bass jug-a-rum sound. One of my favorite frog books, The Frog Book, written in 1906 by naturalist Mary Dickerson, describes the bullfrog:

If we go rowing on river, lake, pond or park lagoon,  some moonlit night late in late June, we are certain to hear the deep-toned call of the Bullfrog many times. Coming as it does at unexpected intervals  and from unexpected directions, it seems startlingly weird in the quiet of the night. For June nights are quiet. The insect orchestras are not in full swing and the frog choruses have disbanded.

During Dickerson’s time, bullfrogs were less common than other frogs. At that time, they had many natural predators to keep them in control: snakes, otters, hawks, owls, herons, and turtles, and frog farming was mainly in the future. But human intervention tipped the balance.

In Super Species, Hamilton documents the story of many species like bullfrogs in which human intervention and alterations of habitats led to an imbalance. But his tone isn’t hysterical. Some invasive species like the plant kudzu, he contends, don’t actually have much of an impact on local biodiversity despite alarmist news stories. These species may actually be creating a new biosphere from the “rubble of our own destruction.”

This review is part of Ecolibris’s  Green Books Campaign.  Today at 1:00 p.m. ET, 200 bloggers will take a stand to support books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 such books. By turning a spotlight on books printed using environmentally-friendly paper, Ecolibris wants to raise the awareness of book buyers to this issue and to encourage them to take it into consideration when purchasing books.

11/3/10

Goliath Frog – The World's Biggest Frog

Most frogs can fit in the palm of your hand, or even on the tip of your finger. But the Goliath frog (Conraua goliath), the world’s largest frog, may grow up to 3 feet long when it is stretched out and can weigh as much as a newborn baby, about 7 lbs (3.2 kg).

A Goliath frog with young friends (from Marginalia.ako.net.nz)

The Goliath frog’s greenish brown color helps to hide it among wet moss-covered rocks in fast-flowing rivers in the dense coastal rainforest of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea in western Africa. Unlike most other frogs and toads, Goliath frogs have no vocal sac and so courtship does not involve displaying any calls. They mainly eat crabs, but will also eat insects and smaller frogs. The Goliath frog can live up to 15 years.

Because Goliath frogs live in such a small area of the rainforest, they are highly vulnerable to habitat loss through logging and clearance of forest for agricultural land. The construction of dams threatens the breeding habitat of these frogs. The frogs have been heavily collected for zoos and the pet trade, but Goliath frogs don’t breed or survive well in captivity. Goliaths are also highly prized as delicacy by local people.

The IUCN (The International Union for Conservation of Nature) sites Goliath frogs as an endangered species because of a 50% decline in population size in the last three generations.

goliath frog

Goliath frog image from animals.uua.cn

Mbo tribesmen believe the frogs are wizards of sacred waterfalls. The only real hope for these amphibian wizards is the preservation of their rainforest home.
10/30/10

Five Interesting Frog Apps for iPhone and iPad

Susan has taken a look at five of the popular froggy apps for iPhone, iPhone touch, and iPad. A few will teach you about frogs, one is for admiring beautiful frogs, and one is for fun only:

1. U.S. State Amphibians app

Want to find out what amphibians live in your backyard? Download the U.S. State Amphibians app by Scott W. Hotaling, which lists the amphibians of each state along with detailed information and a photo. You can zoom in on the photos.

Screenshot from U.S. Amphibians app

2. Frog Flip: Flashcards of Frogs and Salamanders

If you want to test your knowledge of frogs, check out Frog Flip by Proffitt Ink ,which has assorted pictures of frogs and their names, and then a little test section for memorizing them.

3. Frog Dissection

We’ve blogged in the past about alternatives to frog dissection.  One new app that’s been getting a lot of attention is Frog Dissection by Emantras for iPad, which received the Mark Twain Ethical Science Award from PETA. It is available on the iPad app store and features:

  • A virtual specimen
  • Clear instructions
  • Dissection tools like pins, marker, scissors, scalpel, and forceps
  • Touch-operated dissection
  • Dorsal (back) side of the specimen
  • Ability to open the external skin and muscles of the specimen using digital tools
  • Individual organs viewed in large 3D imagery

    • Below is a video introduction to the app. While most kids don’t have iPads, schools might buy a few for this purpose for kids to use for dissection. My college-age son Tim didn’t attend his biology class on dissection because he has ethical objections to dissecting any animals. A tool like this would have been ideal for him.

    4. Frogs!

    If you’re interested in amphibian eye candy, check out Frogs! , a slideshow of one hundred stunning frogs by different photographers. The app doesn’t provide information about the frogs or the photographers, but has lots of interesting photos. All the photos can be used as wallpaper by simply tapping the screen and pressing the “Save” button. This will save the image in your Photos app.

    screenshot from the FROGS! app

    5. Pocket Frogs

    Finally, if you need a break from all that amphibian study, check out Pocket Frogs. For the past two months, our google news alerts about frogs keeps coming up with stories about this new game. After a bit of investigation, it turns out that Pocket Frogs is a widely popular free app for the iPod and iPad.

    Pocket Frogs features lots of cute imaginary frogs and is a Pokemon-type game. You discover, collect, breed, and trade over 10,000 unique frogs. You can connect with other frog fans through Facebook or other online social media sites and it is fun.  We know because we have it!  With background music of the peepers, birds, and the sound of streams, it simulates being among them in nature. We hope it will put people in a froggy state of mind.

    If you know of any other fun,  interesting, or educational amphibian apps, please let us know.

    10/26/10

    FROGS ARE GREEN Kids' Art Contest and 2010 Photo Contest Reminder

    Just a reminder that you still have time to

    enter our Kids’ Art Contest and Photo Contest!

    2010 Frogs Are Green Kids’ Art Contest

    Design by Susan Newman | Illustration by Paul Zwolak

    Contest theme: IT IS EASY BEING GREEN!

    Your artwork can be about frogs and how we can help them, or it can be about ways we can be green at home, at school, or in the community.

    Deadline for submissions is November 30, 2010 and the winner will be announced December 15, 2010. The winner will be featured in a post and his or her artwork will be used to create a poster for the campaign. The winner will also receive 2 copies of this new poster. All other kids who enter will receive a FROGS ARE GREEN (eco-friendly) wristband.

    We’re looking for drawings, paintings, sculpture, collage, or whatever format helps you express yourself. Send your digital files or photographs of the objects to us at info@frogsaregreen.com. The files should be no larger than 3MB each. We will accept the original drawings, but please ship with a tracking number for safety, the address is on our contact page.

    Download this flyer to post for your kids at home or at school.

    We can’t wait to see your artwork!

    2010 Frogs Are Green Photo Contest

    This year we will be accepting submissions in two categories: Frogs in the Wild and Backyard Frogs. Backyard Frog photos would include such photos as a frog perched on your picnic table or other unusual place. Last year, for example, we received a photo of a frog sitting on a pool hose. Frogs in the Wild photos, on the other hand, should feature frogs, toads, or other amphibians in their natural habitat: frog ponds, marshes, in the woods, and so on.

    PLEASE—no photo manipulation and no photos of pet frogs. Please do not move the frog to get a better photo. Photos of amphibians of all kinds, including salamanders, will be accepted. E-mail all photos to us at Frogs Are Green. All photos should be in jpeg format and no larger than 3 MB. Please name your photo a short but distinctive name (with no spaces, such as, “susan-frog-NJ.jpg”) and include a caption detailing your name, email and the location of the photo. All entries must be received by November 30, 2010. Winners will be announced December 15, 2010.

    PRIZES

    Winner:

    The winner will receive a Frogs Are Green t-shirt or poster of his/her choice or we can design a special t-shirt and/or poster with your winning photo. The photo will be featured in a separate post and the photo will also appear on the front page of the blog all year.

    Honorable mentions:

    Honorable mention photos will appear in a gallery on our blog and the photographers will receive our small Red-Eyed Tree Frog poster.

    10/12/10

    The 10 Weirdest and Most Unusual Frogs on Earth

    You might be familiar only with the green frogs or brown toads that live in nearby ponds or woods. But frogs and toads are among the most incredibly diverse animals on earth. Here are just a few of the weirdest and most unusual frogs and toads:

    Tomato frog (D. antongilli)

    Tomato frog, photo courtesy of Charles Paddock Zoo, Atascadero, CA

    This frog is definitely NOT green! Colored as red a ketchup, the Tomato frog’s bright color is meant to warn predators that it is not safe to eat.  The frogs secrete a gummy substance that gets in a predator’s eyes so it will drop the frog, which can then make a quick escape.  The Tomato frog is found only in Madagascar.

    Glass frogs (family, centrolenidae)

    Glass frog. Image courtesy of iFrog.

    Glass frogs are nocturnal tree frogs that live in the humid forests of Central and South America. Their name comes from the translucent skin on the underside of their bodies. In many species the glass frogs’ internal organs, even a beating heart, can be seen. This see-through skin helps them blend into the forest.

    Ornate horned frog (Ceratophrys ornata)

    Ornate horned toad. Image copyright American Museum of Natural History.

    This frog is nicknamed the Pac-Man frog because of its enormous mouth and insatiable appetite. They are a sit-and-wait ambush predator and hide well-disguised on the ground or in leaf litter. Ornate horned frogs can swallow birds, insects, mice, or even other frogs whole. This species can be found in Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil.

    Turtle frog (Myobattachus gouldii)

    Turtle frog. Photo by Evan Pickett. All rights reserved.

    This unusual-looking frog looks like a turtle that has lost its shell. It has a short, blunt snout, little beady eyes, and short, fat limbs. It lives underground in burrows in sandy soil and chambers in termite colonies, upon which it feeds. During a few rainy nights in summer they emerge, mate, then then burrow underground where the eggs are laid. Four to six months later the eggs hatch as fully formed froglets. The Turtle frog only lives in the coastal plains and woodlands of extreme Southwestern Australia.

    Wallace’s Flying Frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus)

    Wallace's flying frog. Image copyright Tim Laman, National Geographic.

    These frogs leap and glide from tree to tree by spreading out their huge webbed feet like parachutes.They are rarely found on ground except to mate and lay eggs. Their oversized toe pads help them stick to tree trunks and to land softly.  Flying frogs inhabit the dense tropical jungles of Malaysia and Borneo.

    Water-holding frog (Cyclorana platycephala)

    Unusual among frogs, water-holding frogs can catch prey—aquatic insects and small fish—underwater, lunging at the animals and stuffing them in their mouths with their arms. During the dry season they become inactive and burrow underground, secreting a mucous to line their burrows. This hardens around the body and enables the frog to retain water that might otherwise be lost due to evaporation. These frogs were traditionally used by indigenous people in Australia as a source of water. They would dig up the frogs, gently squeeze the water from them, and release them unharmed. Water-holding frogs live in grasslands, temporary swamps, and clay pans in arid areas of southern Australia.

    Pinocchio-nose frog (no scientific name yet)

    Pinocchio-nosed frog courtesy of Treehugger.com

    The Pinocchio-nosed frog was discovered recently during a wildlife expedition to Indonesia’s remote Foja Mountains. This long-nosed frog, a tree frog, has a spike on its nose that points upward when the male is calling but deflates and points downward when he is less active. You can see the Pinocchio-frog and the other newly discovered species on the National Geographic site.

    The hip pocket frog (Assa darlingtoni)

    Hip Pocket Frog courtesy frogs.org.au

    This is called a Male Marsupial frog because like a kangaroo it carries its young in pouches. It has two openings, one on each hip, where tadpoles develop. First the female lays eggs in damp sand, then they are guarded by the male, and finally they hatch into finless white tadpoles, which wriggle their way into the pouches. Only about half make it. They emerge 7 to 10 weeks later as froglets. Hip-pocket frogs are terrestrial and live among leaf litter in the forest (and like a few of our other unusual frogs, they are only found in Australia).

    Southern gastric-brooding frog (Rheobatrachus silus)

    Gastric brooding frog

    This species was discovered in 1972 living in rocky creeks and ponds in the rainforest of Queensland, Australia. They have an amazing way of “bringing up baby.” First the female swallows her eggs, then her digestion slows down and she stops feeding and the tadpole develops in her stomach. After six to eight weeks, she opens her mouth, dilates her esophagus and the babies crawl out. Sadly, this extraordinary frog is most probably extinct. The last wild southern gastric-brooding frog was seen in 1981—the last known frog in captivity died in 1983.

    Pipa or Surinam Toad (Pipa pipa)

    Surinam toad

    This Surinam toad is the world’s flattest amphibian—in fact, it looks like the victim of an unfortunate road accident. Yet this frog’s unusual shape helps hide it among the leaves and plant debris in the streams they inhabit in the Amazon River Basin of South America. Like some of the other frogs above, they have an amazing reproductive strategy: after the female lays eggs the male attaches them to the female’s back. They stick to her skin, which grows to form pockets over them, giving her a honeycomb appearance. The tadpoles grow within these pockets and emerge as toadlets after 20 weeks.

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    We’ve designed a cool new 2011 calendar and poster: The Weirdest and Most Unusual Frogs on Earth. Get one for your kid’s room!

    Note: I got most of the information for this post from The Golden Guide to Frogs and Toads:

    Golden Guide to Frogs and Toads by Dave Showler, illustrated by Barry Croucher.