08/1/14

Tadpoles in Maine Pond Die from Ranavirus

An estimated 200,000 Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) Tadpoles in a local pond in Maine died within a few days (in 2013) from most-likely a ranavirus. A paper was recently published in Herpetological Review that is co-authored by Nathaniel Wheelwright, a biologist at Bowdoin College, along with the University of Tennessee.

“The dead tadpoles had signs of hemorrhaging in their legs and around their throats, and many had skin that was sloughing off their bodies”, Wheelwright said.

Wheelwright has monitored the pond for close to 30 years and said it was quite surprising. Usually there are 50-100,000 tadpoles and only 1000 may live to become adult frogs. But for all to die, very unusual. They did notice there were no leeches present.

There are other species who can carry the ranavirus, such as green frogs, bullfrogs, painted turtles and spotted salamanders* (*who were found in the pond and showed signs of suffering from the virus also.)

Here’s a video from Bowdoin College with biology professor, Nat Wheelwright talking about the tadpoles:

The good news is that this past Spring showed healthy tadpoles and frogs and no sign of any issues.

Do you think this was caused by pesticides and/or climate change? Too many tadpoles crowded together?
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The differences between Chyrid Fungus and Ranavirus are:

Chyrid is a fungus and infects individual frogs who suffer damage to their skin. Once infected it impairs respiration and the frog dies. It has been devastating amphibian populations around the world.

Ranaviruses infect insects, fish, amphibians and turtles and infect larvae or recently metamorphosed individuals.

04/27/14

Save The Frogs Day Event with Mayor Steven Fulop

We all have something we’re passionate about, and it’s not always easy to get others to share our enthusiasm, but yesterday, Jersey City came out to learn about frogs, amphibians and enjoy the Earth Day / Save The Frogs Day event.

As the event began, we set out all the delicious, healthy food (some came from vegan, organic, gluten-free baker Chef Camillo Sabella), the wine and beverages, and the day’s musical guests, The Gully Hubbards began to play. People started streaming in. Artists, nature-lovers, neighbors, parents and children (some who take Saturday morning art classes at the Distillery Gallery) and everybody would say how great the space was, the music sounded, and how amazing the art was.

At about 5 pm, a reporter from Jersey City 1 TV (JC1TV) arrived and interviewed me about Frogs Are Green, what the Green Dream is about, and why it’s so important to save frogs. Then Mayor Steven Fulop arrived and we took some photos, and talked together about frogs. He was quite informed on the topic, so the discussion was very good. Then the reporter captured the Mayor and I discussing frogs and why we must save them. The Mayor moved around the gallery looking at the art, talking with others and the children also. Then we moved to the back end of gallery along with the two curators, Kristin DeAngelis and Gabriel Pacheco and the Mayor spoke to the crowd about frogs and amphibians, and the three of us spoke as well. The Mayor gave us proclamations, and we gave the Mayor gifts. A painted flowerpot (with flowering plant) by one of the children who is enrolled in the Saturday classes at the gallery, a Green Dream t-shirt, and one of the most recent Earth Day posters from Frogs Are Green, illustrated by Sylvie Daigneault. It was so fantastic to see a crowd so into this.

Afterward, there were two environmental speakers, Michelle Anne Luebke, an instructor at CUNY and an environmentalist and Laura Skolar of the Jersey City Parks Coalition, who spoke. There were so many children at yesterday’s event, some who sat on the floor in a circle and were drawing with chalk and crayons. We did the drawing of the raffle contest and the winner was announced, but wasn’t there, so he will be notified. One lucky child receives a year of art classes at the gallery for free!

The overall harmony of the event was perfect. The people, music, food, and excitement with photographers and TV, made the event a thrill for me and everybody had a fabulous time. There will be many more photos to come (from the official photographer, Danny Chong) as well as video of course, but here are a few, so you share in the event’s success.

— Susan Newman, founder, Frogs Are Green

Susan Newman and Mayor Steven Fulop talk about saving frogs and their importance to our ecosystem.

The Gully Hubbards play at Green Dream for Save The Frogs day.

Gary Van Miert, Susan Newman, Dave Ace Case

Thomas Tyburski and John Crittenden at Green Dream.

Children gather to draw pictures, maybe of frogs!

Kristin DeAngelis, Susan Newman, Mayor Steven Fulop, Gabriel Pacheco at Green Dream in Jersey City.

Proclamation to Frogs Are Green and Distillery Gallery for Green Dream.

Jersey City 1 TV films, Frogs Are Green founder Susan Newman and Mayor Steven Fulop with Distillery Gallery curators, Kristin DeAngelis and Gabriel Pacheco.

Laura Skolar of Jersey City Parks Coalition speaking to crowd.

Michelle Anne Luebke, instructor at CUNY and environmentalist speaks to crowd.

Susan Newman and Chef Camillo Sabella, who brought his gluten-free, vegan,organic, kosher-style and low fat macaroons!

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01/14/14

Mid-Winter Bullfrog Rescue

I’m so pleased to share a story that comes by way of Lexington, Massachusetts. Jack Stearns, a scientist and Meteorologist, has rescued a bullfrog in the middle of Winter. Below are the details, correspondence that I shared with The Wandering Herpetologist, Sara Viernum, who offers her advice.

Dear Susan,

I hope you can help me with some information.

Where my wife works in eastern MA there is a large garden wall. Yesterday one of her workers came in and told her there was a frog on the sidewalk. My wife went out and there was a huge bullfrog on the sidewalk, sitting half in of snow. By tracing back his path he saw the frog had come out of a huge crack in the wall. We have had brutal weather the last few weeks with temps as low as -10F with heavy snow.

Because the frog would not survive where it was, (i.e a busy sidewalk and a street treated with chemicals) one of my wife’s coworkers placed the frog in a container, using rubber gloves and brought him home. We are frog and toad people so we are very familiar with their needs and habitats, however a frog appearing on your doorstep in the heart of winter is a new one!

The frog is OK and looks in good shape and very plump. He had no signs of any injury, his eyes are clear and he has a moist skin and is very lethargic, which I would expect being in semi-hibernation. I placed him in cold water up to his jaw and put him in our coal cellar which is at a constant 34 degrees since I didn’t want to warm him up to wake him up.

Obviously everything is frozen solid so the only choice I have is to keep him where he is. I looked on him this morning and he definitely is in a hibernation state and you see he is breathing very slowly.

Is there anything else we should be doing until spring arrives? There is a small pond near our house which is full of bullfrogs and eventually we want to place him there. The pond has a small current and I know the frogs burrow into the mud there to escape the current which is stronger in the winter. Right now our frog would be in no state to burrow into the mud.

I hope you can help. This guy is huge and a lovely specimen and we would hate for anything to happen to him.

Thank you, Jack Stearns, Lexington, MA

Jack,

Susan with Frogs Are Green forwarded me your email about the bullfrog. Bullfrogs usually hibernate in the mud in a pond in the wild. Offering your frog wet/moist soil to burrow into might help.

A side note: Bullfrogs are known chytrid fungus carriers. It’s usually not a good idea to relocate any amphibian to another wetland because of the risk of spreading a disease to another population. But I know that allowing an animal to perish instead is not a good option either. I would suggest contacting a local nature center to see if they would be interested in taking the frog.

Thanks for being a friend of amphibians.

Cheers!

Sara E. Viernum

The Wandering Herpetologist
http://www.wanderingherpetologist.com
https://www.facebook.com/thewanderingherpetologist

________________________________________

Sara,

Thank you for response. I will introduce some moist soil into his container. He seems to be doing OK so giving him the soil may increase his chances of survival for the next couple of months.

I did not know about the fungus thus I will not put him in the pond near our house in the Spring. The last thing I want is to start an epidemic in another pond. The frogs in that pond are huge and it is fun to hear them croak in the late Spring and early summer and I don’t want to jeopardize those wonderful sounds.

Where our frog was found by my wife on the sidewalk, is not too far from a small pond near the building where my wife works. It is the only body of water anywhere near the area and had bullfrogs in it. Would it be OK to release him back to that pond since that is where he likely came from?

Another alternative is if I can’t find a local nature center, I have very small manmade pond in my Hostas garden. Maybe he would be happy there in the warm weather, maybe he could control my slug and bug problem.

I will keep you posted on our progress.

My wife and I have always been partial to frogs and toads. Where we spent summers on Chatham, MA the house bordered a pond that was full of Spring peepers in the spring and sounds of Green and Bullfrogs in the summer.

Being a scientist myself (Meteorologist), I am well aware of the environment around me and that we all are stewards of this Planet.

Thanks again, Jack
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Jack,

Thanks for considering the impacts of introducing the frog into a new population could cause.

I’d think releasing it in the pond nearest the location it was found would be fine. But he would definitely help control insects in your pond. The only concern would be him surviving in it next winter. The pond would need to have enough debris (leaf litter, mud) and deep enough not to freeze solid for it to hibernate in.  Best of luck.

Sara,

________________________________________

Susan and Sara,

Just a note on how Bartholomew is doing. The name comes from a pamphlet printed in 1918 called Bartholomew Bullfrog.

In addition to the assistance I received from you two, I also have been getting help from a gentleman in Rockport, MA who oversees the Vernal Pool program in that town.

Right now the Bullfrog is in a large flat container filled with water with soil on one half of the bottom. Once he was transferred to the tank he took a few strokes then settled to the bottom on the end with no soil where he is definitely in a state of hibernation. He looks good and with a little bit of luck we are all set until Spring. Attached is a picture taken this morning.

He has become quite a celebrity where my wife works since most people there now have heard him being found and are curious on how he is doing.

Thanks again for all your help and I will keep you posted on his progress.

Jack

Update: 1.20.2014

Susan,

Bartholomew continues to do well.

He started to shed is skin so at the suggestion of Sara I moved him into another tank since she said that bacteria could grow in the dead skin and the water could become a little funky.

Moved him in on Saturday. This critter is strong! He is definitely healthy!

Then yesterday he did a sneak out. He managed to lift the corner of the tank top and climb out and went and sat in the corner of the coal room.

I told Sara about the sneak out and she told me that they are notorious escape artists. She also said that he might be happier in a bed of wet soil. I got some wet soil with no additives, fertilizers and the like in it. I put him in that tank and we will see what happens.

With the colder weather moving in, temperatures which now stand at 39F in the coal room will definitely drop to near freezing the next few days and I am sure he will become even less active.

This frog is smart and he knows it!

Sincerely, Jack

11/17/13

Environmental Attorney and Amphibian Activist Talk Issues on Techno Granny Radio

Two weeks ago I was asked to talk about environmental issues on the Techno Granny’s radio show along with Tamar Cerafici, an environmental attorney based in New Hampshire. This show covered many topics under the title “10 Plus Technologies that will help you go green and conserve the environment.”

Some things we discussed:

Why frogs are threatened with extinction and the number of issues they’re facing
How industries such as paper mills are polluting the water which is affecting frogs and possibly humans
Why we should always use FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) certified paper
Can technology really help you go green? Can an attorney really be an environmental advocate?
Working in the cloud and how this technology is saving the environment, such as Dropbox, Google docs, iCloud and Evernote, because you can use and access from anywhere
How to have a paperless office and how courtrooms are embracing this new technology

11/4/2013 – Link to Techno Granny Radio Show – Environmental Attorney, 1 Activist, 10 Green Technologies

Tomorrow morning (11.18.2013) we will meet for round 2! Tamar and I will join the broadcast again at 10 am EST, after the Techno Granny (Joanne Quinn-Smith) received so many comments asking us to talk about additional topics.

Some of the topics to be discussed:

The effect pesticides have on the environment (pollution): water, animals, soil, humans
Atrazine: The 21st Century’s DDT (Roundup)
Chlorothalonil is the most commonly used synthetic fungicide in the USA, commonly applied to peanuts, tomatoes and potatoes. (what are we eating?)
Alternatives to using Pesticides, Green Farming?
Organizations talking about this and trying to spread awareness. (Save the Frogs, National Pesticide Information Center, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Environmental Protection Agency and Frogs Are Green)

Resources for more information:

http://npic.orst.edu/envir/

http://www.fws.gov/contaminants/Issues/Pesticides.cfm

http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/ecosystem/

http://savethefrogs.org

10/3/13

Protecting the Unique Frogs of Andasibe, Madagascar

Guest post by
Devin Edmonds,
Amphibian Conservation Director, Association Mitsinjo

It doesn’t get much better than a going into the forests of Andasibe at night. There are leaf-tailed geckos, mouse lemurs, sleeping chameleons, and frogs. Lots of frogs. More than 100 different species, in fact, which have been identified in the surrounding forests. This is more than a third of all described frog species on the island.

Most of these frogs are nocturnal, but a few are also active during the day, like the Critically Endangered golden mantella (Mantella aurantiaca), which is only found in a small area near Andasibe in east-central Madagascar.

The conservation organization Mitsinjo works in the area around Andasibe, and is composed of 53 members of the community.

Our activities include:

Habitat management
Research
Nature-based tourism
Reforestation
Captive breeding
Environmental education

A group of our projects are targeted specifically at monitoring and addressing the threats our unique local frog species face. This includes the development of Madagascar’s first biosecure captive breeding facility capable of establishing assurance survival colonies of threatened amphibians.

Additionally, we conduct surveys to monitoring for declines and population changes. This activity compliments participation in a nation-wide early detection plan for the chytrid fungus Bd, the devastating pathogen contributing to alarming amphibian extinctions around the world. Fortunately, so far we have not detected Bd in Andasibe and reports elsewhere in Madagascar remain highly doubtful and unconfirmed.

Recently, Mitsinjo joined forces with the NGO Madagasikara Voakajy to contribute to the national conservation strategy for the golden mantella. Each month, we monitor three breeding sites at Torotorofotsy Wetland. This area is under tremendous pressure from artisanal gold mining, slash-and-burn agriculture, and charcoal production. Our habitat patrols help to ensure the breeding sites for this highly threatened amphibian remain intact.

To learn more about our organization like us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/Mitsinjo) and visit our website www.mitsinjo.org. For more information on amphibian conservation in Madagascar see www.sahonagasy.org

Andasibe Village, Madagascar

boophis luteus in amplexus

Captive breeding facility - Mitsinjo

Captive breeding facility inside view - Mitsinjo

Mantella aurantiaca breeding site patrol at Torotorofotsy Wetland

Mitsinjo swabs captive frogs for Bd

Mantidactylus species near Andasibe

Mantella aurantiaca of Mitsinjo

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07/14/13

Herps Alive! A Reptile Rescue Herpetologist Writes About Frogs

Guest Post by Keith Gisser

I know what you are thinking.

Why is a reptile rescue guy writing about frogs? They aren’t reptiles. And captive frogs don’t need to be rescued. Gators, boas, pythons, maybe even big monitor lizards and iguanas, sure. But frogs?

Herps Alive! The Interactive Reptile and Amphibian Experience, is a traveling educational herpetology program and display. We have presented in 36 states (primarily at college campuses, but also at libraries, festivals elementary and high schools). Now in my fifties, I did my first paid program at age 17, and now my daughter a degreed Interpretative Naturalist, and my son, a marketing whiz, often travel and help me. We offer display programs and interactive lectures as well as classroom sessions, and have presented an estimated 3,000 programs since we started (we have worked some “real” jobs here and there).

As your reputation builds, you start getting calls to adopt animals. Usually they are pets that people can’t keep. Sometimes they are police seizures or animals from other unfortunate situations. We have always accepted these animals in an effort to keep a good relationship with the museums, nature centers and law enforcement officials who contact us.

But in the last year or so, the rescue mission has taken on a life of its own. We have been asked to take in dozens of animals. And for the first time, we began rehoming a few. As a result we are spinning off our rescue mission and working on moving it to a separate location, as we turn it into a charitable foundation.

But what about the frogs?

I have been fascinated with frogs my entire life. My career as a herpetologist probably began at age nine when I caught a toad. I brought him home in a rinsed out pickle jar. (That was 45 years ago when such behavior was acceptable. At the time they were also in the genus Bufo, not Anaxyrus) I have bred several species of frog in captivity and always include a discussion of metamorphosis in my educational programs.

Right now we have three frogs among our 150 animals. Our Southern Toad (Anaxyrusterrestris) was living in a Carolina classroom after a student had brought him. He had been in captivity for too long to be released, so when we came in to do a program, the teacher asked if we could take him. Known just as The Toad, he eats crickets and small worms, as well as waxworms.

Beatrice is an African Clawed Frog (Xenopuslaevis) who was raised from a small size by my son’s ex-girlfriend. When she moved into a new home, she asked us to take her on. Beatrice was raised in a 10 gallon aquarium. When we tried to move her to a larger one, she went off feed and seemed generally unhappy. So back into the ten she went even though it really is too small for her. She loves her goldfish and nightcrawlers and eats anywhere from 10-30 a week. Unfortunately, her relatives have been taking a bad rap lately as they have been identified as the culprits that carried of the dreaded chytrid fungus. It’s not really their fault. In everywhere except their African home, they were used as lab animals. They were used as part of a pregnancy test. The problem is not with them carrying the fungus, but rather with the irresponsible people who have released them outside their normal environment.

Finally, there is Poncherello Pegone Pixiefrog, our African Bullfrog (Pyxicephalusadsperus). “Ponch” is named for the mayor on the cartoon My Gym Partner’s a Monkey., who is also a Pixie, or African Bullfrog. We adopted him from a breeder because he appears to be blind in one eye and the breeder did not want him. Ponch eats thawed mice off tongs, usually one or two a week. He is also a regular in our programs, having traveled to 14 states since we got him two years ago. While our other frogs are kept in our entrance hallway (Our facility is not air conditioned), Ponch loves the heat and his aquarium is kept in our snake and lizard room, where the high ambient temperature helps him with digestion.

We hope to see you some time in the future…

About Keith Gisser:

Keith caught a toad (Anaxyrus ssp) when he was nine and his herpetology career began. He has presented Herps Alive! an award-winning, nationally recognized interactive reptile and amphibian program based in Ohio, at over 170 college campuses and hundreds of other venues in 39 states.

Gisser, who has been a herpetology educator for over thirty years and currently maintains about 140 reptiles, amphibians and crocodilians, nearly all of which are adoptions or rescues, about half of which are used in his programs. The rescue and adoption mission has taken more and more of his time and efforts in recent years and will soon be “spun off” as the Herps Alive! Foundation, which is in the process of seeking non-profit status and accreditation as a rescue.

Frogs Are Green

Environmental Organization Helping to Bring Awareness About Frog Decline Around The World

Category Archives: chytrid fungus