07/27/10

Sea Turtle Hatchlings Released in Gulf of Mexico

At Padre Island National Seashore, thousands of Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle hatchlings, raised in captivity, have been released today, but they face an uncertain future. These hatchlings will imprint on the sand at the Padre Seashore. If they survive, female adult sea turtles will return in several years to the same area to lay their own eggs.

The sea turtle hatchlings will face many natural hazards: predation by shore birds, crabs, fish, or other animals. In the first few days in the ocean, the baby sea turtles swim for more than a day without stopping—a pretty amazing feat for a newly hatched reptile that could fit in the palm of your hand. After this swimming frenzy, they rest and feed in patches of seaweed.

But these hatchlings also face an unnatural hazard: a habitat fouled with oil. Unlike most sea turtles that roam far, sometimes thousands of miles, Kemp’s Ridleys stay close to home, preferring the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. According to Juan Rodriguez, chief of interpretation and education at Padre Island, as quoted in a USA Today article, adult females are most at risk because their favorite places to eat are in the coastal marshes of Louisiana, where the oil first hit land.

Not everyone thinks releasing the hatchlings is a good idea. Todd Steiner, director of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, which works to protect sea turtles, opposes the release because the turtles will float in currents that may lead into oil-polluted areas. “We believe they’re going to get into the oil and die,” Steiner said.

Yet others like David Godfrey, executive director of the Sea Turtle Conservancy in Gainesville, Florida, argue that keeping the turtles too long in captivity may disrupt their navigational and foraging skills. He is in favor of releasing the Kemp’s Ridleys as long as Texas is oil-free: “Everybody who is critical of that decision has a right to be critical because it’s not a black or white decision. If oil comes into Texas with a hurricane, nobody knows what would happen. Is it absolutely foolproof, 100%, signed, sealed, delivered? I don’t know. Nobody knows.”

For more information:

“Turtle hatchlings released into Gulf,” by Oren Dorell, USA Today

“Despite oil, baby turtles released into Gulf,” by Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Associated Press

07/21/10

Calling All Kids – 2010 FROGS ARE GREEN Art Contest

Calling all kids ages 3-12!

We’ve launched a new campaign to help frogs! As part of the campaign we’re excited to announce the first FROGS ARE GREEN art contest for kids.

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 file should be no larger than 3MB.

We can’t wait to see your artwork!

See our poster and t-shirt with Paul Zwolak’s artwork!

07/15/10

Hope for Frogs in Fight Against Chytrid Fungus

This week Scientific American reported that researchers in California and Virginia have identified a symbiotic bacteria living on frogs’ skin that protects them from chytrid, a fungal disease contributing to the extinction of one-third of the world’s amphibians. They discovered this naturally occurring bacteria, toxic to the chytrid fungus, in the skin of mountain yellow-legged frogs and redback salmanders.

The chytrid fungus most likely began in African Clawed frogs, which carry the fungus that causes chytrid, but don’t die from it. In the 1940s these frogs were raised in captivity for pregnancy tests. Most of the frogs were released once this method was no longer used for the tests. They infected amphibians in the United States and around the world.

So far scientists have not found a way to combat this deadly disease that spreads quickly in amphibian populations. Individual animals can be treated, but not large populations of amphibians.

But in this recent study, frogs inoculated with a solution containing the symbiotic skin bacteria survived. The scientists plan to introduce the bacteria to the wild with with a method called bioaugmentation. They hope to increase naturally occurring bacteria so that it can spread to even more frogs and other amphibians.

This summer the scientists will be conducting tests in isolated areas to ensure that bioaugmentation will be safe and environmentally friendly. If successful, this might offer the first real hope for warding off the mass exinction of the earth’s amphibians. Good news indeed for our froggy friends!

Mountain Yellow-legged frog

07/5/10

FROGS ARE GREEN 2010 Photo Contest!

We’re excited to announce the 2nd Annual FROGS ARE GREEN Photo contest!

Here are the rules:

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 September 15, 2010. Winners will be announced October 4, 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.

SOME TIPS FOR PHOTOGRAPHING AMPHIBIANS

For those of you who have never photographed an amphibian, here are some tips from the book Frogs: A Chorus of Colors by John and Deborah Behler, which has a chapter on photographing these elusive and well-camouflaged creatures:

• Try to learn about the animal first. What is its habitat? When are they active?
• Walk slowly and stop frequently (it helps to have someone with you who is less than 3 feet tall and has sharp eyes). Frogs and toads blend in so well that they are hard to find. Be alert for subtle movements.
• In summer, you might find the sit-and-wait frog predators hanging out on the edges of ponds and lakes.
• Be aware of the position of the sun. Avoid taking pictures at midday on bright sunny days. In the morning, face east and it will keep sunlight from coming into your lens and washing out your photos.
• Don’t necessarily put the subject in the middle of the photo. Keep the whole animal in the photo, but compose the picture so the background tells a story.
• Bracket your photos, i.e., take the same shot with different settings. Also, try taking a flash photo. Without a flash, animals in photos may look lifeless and poorly lighted.
• Try to be on the same level as your subject.
• State parks, bird sanctuaries, and wildlife refuges are good places to find amphibians.

You don’t need fancy equipment. I took this photo of a bullfrog in low light with a Kodak EasyShare camera on the Flower Setting (close up).

Bullfrog, photo by Mary Jo Rhodes

On your travels this summer, keep your eye peeled for our froggy friends and send in your photos!

06/28/10

Cape Town’s secretive inhabitant and pilot conservation species – the Western Leopard Toad

Written by Guest Blogger: Mark Day

Dusk ascends to cover the suburb of Bergvliet under a blanket of darkness. It brings with it the chill of a Wintery August night in Cape Town, South Africa, as a nippy breeze sweeps across the small urban wetland of Die Oog (an Afrikaans word meaning “The Eye”).

This man-made depression was originally dug out some 284 years ago to provide water for livestock on the neighbouring farm of Dreyersdal. In more recent years, however, Die Oog has come to serve a much greater purpose, as a pivotal breeding site for one of Cape Town’s most threatened amphibians, the western leopard toad Ameitophrynus pantherinus.

IUCN listed Amietophrynus pantherinus in Noordhoek - Photo by Maria Wagener of Fishhoek

As little as six years ago it was thought that only several such breeding sites remained in existence, for a species which has suffered massive population declines as a consequence of numerous threats including urban expansion, habitat destruction and population decimation through road kills. Today, conservationists and scientists with the aid of concerned volunteers and the public have listed a total of 52 breeding sites within the Cape Town range of the species. Further eastwards, some 150 kilometres away from southern Cape Town, a largely unprotected population comprising seven breeding sites exists.

Unlike most frogs which remain at water courses throughout the year, toads live in what’s termed ‘foraging areas’ where they lay dormant by day and hunt by night—with an exception for August month and there about when they migrate to and from local aquatic environments to breed. Presently, the majority of these foraging and breeding areas fall under urban suburbia, guaranteeing a window of constant interaction between these toads and the unknowing dangers their human neighbours pose.

Despite current conservation action and volunteer efforts to protect the Cape Town populations, census data from the 2009 breeding season only generated a recorded 1125 live migrants and 258 dead. Great strides have been achieved in recent years through a consistent increase in awareness of the plight of the species and in the recruitment of volunteers. The fate of the species is however uncertain—unless the citizens residing in these areas value their endemic and endangered leopard toad, there will merely remain stories of its once enigmatic nature and quiet existence.

For further details on the species, join the group on Facebook, The Endangered Western Leopard Toad or visit the website, www.leopardtoad.co.za.

Mark Day
Coordinator: Awareness, Volunteer & Census Operations
Western Leopard Toad Conservation Committee

Email: leopardtoad@gmail.com

Websites: www.leopardtoad.co.za / www.toadnuts.co.za

Facebook: The Endangered Western Leopard Toad

06/20/10

Teach Your Children Well (about nature): Father's Day Thoughts

A couple of months ago, we received a lovely email from a reader named Marty who lives in in Eastern Pennsylvania (Lehigh County) one hour south of the Pocono Mountains. Here’s part of the email:

What’s the best thing I can do as a Dad to teach my children to preserve these treasures [frogs and salamanders] that are so dear to me. My grandfather taught me the love of wild places and I want to pass that on to them.

I wish more dads were thinking about how they could introduce nature to kids. My sons are in their twenties and still love learning about wildlife and animals. I think most of this love of nature came from their father. So I’m offering a few suggestions. But we’d like to open this up to readers of Frogs Are Green and get your ideas also. How did your father encourage your love of nature? What are you doing as a dad to instill a love of nature in your kids.

photo by Mary Jo Rhodes

Here are some ideas:

• take them on short hikes or walks into the woods, starting when they are very young. (Here is a list of state parks). Young children need no encouragement to love nature—everything around them is still magical and interesting (bugs, stones, flowers). The key is to keep taking them on walks in the woods throughout their childhood, even when they start saying it’s boring (the preteen years). You might have to add other incentives during the rougher times (a trip to an ice cream store afterwards or some other treat).

• Your child might start to like one animal and that may become their animal. Encourage this by buying books about the animal, plush toys, trips to see the animal in the wild (whale watching trips, for example), or in zoos or aquariums. You can adopt various wild animals for $25 or so, and this will give your child a personal connection to the animal (we adopted a whale when our sons were young).

• Plan family vacations around national parks rather than amusement parks. We’ve visited a number of national parks over the years. These are fun because the trails through them are easy and well worn, there’s a certain familiarity to them (the park rangers, the gift shops, etc), and the scenery is spectacular. You can buy a passport for your child and have it stamped in each national park you go to.

• Share you enthusiasm about nature, but don’t be too heavy handed about it. If kids feel you are always teaching them, they might get turned off. Instead, share your sense of wonder. Point out a cardinal (look at that red bird!), but don’t turn it into a lesson about birds.

• The National Wildlife Federation has ideas about enjoying nature with children, including setting up a tent in your backyard and sleeping outside. I did this a few times as a kid in my suburban backyard (without the tent), and loved it. If you’re lucky enough to live in a place far from cities, you can stargaze with your children, pointing out a few constellations.

• as far as our amphibians friends….the best places that we’ve found to see them are state parks. Unlike Marty, we live in an urban area and it’s tough to find amphibians in a region where all the land has been developed. But state parks and wildlife refuges that have been left untouched, with ponds and swamps, are great places to see them. Tell your kids to look out for frogs, toads, and salamanders. Kids are closer to the ground and have sharper eyes and will most likely see them before you do. You can also build a frog pond in your backyard.

Dads: Please send along your ideas as well for introducing children to nature! Happy Father’s Day!