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 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)

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.

10/7/10

Volunteers Help Baby Sea Turtles Survive the BP Oil Spill

The life of a sea turtle hatchling isn’t easy. After they hatch out of leathery eggs in a nest, buried deep in the sand, they move immediately toward the light above the ocean, scramble into the surf, and swim for a couple of days straight without stopping. Finally they rest in floating seaweed called sargassum. Sea turtle babies float along in the sargassum, a mini-ecosystem that provides food and protection, for a few years until they grow from about the size of a cookie to the size of a dinner plate.

This year, however, wasn’t a normal year for the sea turtle hatchlings. Because of the 4.9 millions of barrels of oil spewed into the Gulf as a result of the BP oil spill, the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, those seaweed life rafts were covered in oil or were incinerated during the many controlled burns. Under these conditions, most of these sea turtle hatchlings wouldn’t have survived. Wildlife officials decided to intervene and transport the latest generation of sea turtle babies to a cleaner part of the ocean.

On October 1, the New York Times ran an article, The BP-Spill Baby-Turtle Brigade by Jon Mooallem that tells the inspiring, though bittersweet, story of the extraordinary efforts of the volunteers who helped save the hatchlings. For years, volunteers with the Alabama organization, Share the Beach, have taken time out of their lives each year to help protect threatened and endangered sea turtles along the Alabama coast. During the nesting season, they clear the beach of debris so turtles can lay their eggs; they patrol the beaches and protect the nests after the female turtle lays her eggs; and they give the hatchlings a head start by helping them reach the ocean.

Because of their experience , the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked these volunteers to help dig up the nests during the last days of the eggs’ incubation. They then packed the eggs in Styrofoam containers, and the eggs were transported by FedEx trucks to a climate-controlled warehouse at the Kennedy Space Center on the east coast of Florida. After hatching, the baby turtles were released into the oil-free Atlantic.

But it wasn’t easy for the volunteers to let their babies go. As quoted in the NY Times article, a Share the Beach team leader named Bill Hanks said, “It’s kind of like it’s our turtles. You get attached to them, almost like a mama-daddy thing.”

Sending the eggs was especially difficult because a mature female sea turtle will usually return to the beach where she hatched to lay her own eggs. Because sea turtles’ nesting and hatching was disrupted and they entered the ocean from another beach, the question is, will these turtles eventually return to Gulf Coast beaches or to Florida beaches?

Kemp's ridley sea turtle hatchlings from the Gulf Coast released into the Atlantic Ocean from the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. Photo by Kim Shiflett, NASA.

But the volunteers, though devastated, knew they had to do it for the sake of the turtles. (Incidentally not all scientists are in favor of this type of hands-on intervention with sea turtles, but most seemed to agree it was acceptable in such an extraordinary crisis.)

In late August the operation wound down as the sargassum seemed to recover. Although the surface of the Gulf appears to be oil-free, it remains to be seen what has happened to all that oil and chemical dispersant. Those sea turtles that depend on food deeper down in the ocean may suffer. For example, the main diet of leatherback turtles is jellyfish. Have jellyfish absorbed oil and disperant chemicals, and thus will now be ingested by the critically endangered leatherbacks? It seems likely.

While things look bleak for leatherbacks and other marine animals in the Gulf, at least some of the sea turtle babies are off to a good start thanks to efforts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service and the Share the Beach volunteers.

You can adopt a sea turtle nest from Share the Beach—a wonderful gift for a sea turtle lover!

More information:

The BP-Spill Baby-Turtle Brigade by Jon Mooallem, NY Times, October 1, 2010

Updates on Sea Turtles and the Oil Spill, Sea Turtle Conservancy

09/30/10

Deformed Frogs Found in New Mexico Pond

According to the KOAT-TV blog (Albuquerque, NM), residents of Los Lunas, New Mexico, are concerned about dead and deformed frogs found in a pond in a park just a few feet from their homes.

A frog with two extra legs

As quoted in the report, a resident, who wants to remain anonymous, said the discovery has been a huge concern around the neighborhood for weeks. “We saw several today, probably five or six, maybe ten that were just dead around the pond.”

A local resident took pictures of the deformed frogs after her kids caught several from the pond. In the photos, some of the frogs have no back legs at all, while others have too many legs.

Michael Jaramillo, director of Parks and Recreation for Los Lunas, investigated these reports and found two dead and deformed frogs almost instantly. He suspects that weed killer or chemicals used to treat the algae may be hurting the amphibians. The city of Los Lunas has closed the park and has stretched a yellow caution tape around the entire pond, and experts will soon test the water.

Mason Ryan, an amphibian expert at the University of New Mexico, said in a related article that frogs can be good indicators of what’s wrong in the environment. He doesn’t know what’s specifically happening at the New Mexico park, but the frogs could help tell the story.

“It could indicate that something is out of whack — a potential parasite population has increased too much, a potential predator or disease or chemical contaminant.”

State environmental officials plan to contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and to test the water for contaminants.

More information:

Dead, Deformed Frogs Found in Pond, KOAT, Albuquerque

State Official Investigate Deformed Frogs