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
________________________________________

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

11/3/13

2013 Kids Art Contest Hosted by Frogs Are Green

Calling All Kids ages 3-12! – The 4th annual 2013 Frogs Are Green Art Contest

Contests officially opened on July 20th, 2013.

Last year we received over 260 entries from kids around the world, and the year before over 500! As always, we are so impressed by kids’ creativity and imagination and the variety of ways they express themselves: in crayon, watercolor, colored pencil, clay, 3D sculptures, dioramas, murals, mosaics, and mixed media.

We will award winners based on age in these age groups: 3-6, 7-9, 10-12. We also added a few new categories last year, Best 3D, Most Unusual Artwork, best Environmental, and this may expand depending on what we receive. The 1st place winners will receive a Frogs Are Green Poster of their choice from our store. All kids receive a certificate via download on our site.

Our 2013 campaign to help frogs! As part of the campaign we’re excited to announce the 4th FROGS ARE GREEN art contest for kids.

Contest theme:

How Will YOU Help Save Frogs and Amphibians!

Your artwork can be about frogs/amphibians and how you (or all of us) can help them.

Deadline for submissions is December 15, 2013 and the winners will be announced January 21, 2014. The winners will be featured in a post.

We’re looking for drawings, paintings, sculpture, collage, or whatever format helps you express yourself.

This year we have a new contest area using Flickr, where you can enter yourself.

There are three different group pools, so be sure to enter your photo/artwork into the right group pool.

Frogs Are Green 2013 Kids Art Contest

For the Kids’ Art Contest, you must add a caption, with your Name, Age, and Country (and a caption if you like) or your submission will not be added.

Please print out the attached flyer to post in your neighborhood schools.

We can’t wait to see your artwork!

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

Play Prev|Next

10/9/12

Calling All Frog Artists! A Reminder about the Frogs Are Green Kids' Art Contest 2012

Now that school is underway and the weather is getting colder (at least in this part of the world), it’s the perfect time to create some frog art. We hope you will consider submitting your frog art masterpieces to Frogs Are Green for our 2012 Kids’ Art Contest.

Here are the details:

Contest theme: IT’S EASY BEING GREEN!

Your artwork can be about frogs, how we can help them, or about ways we can be green at home, at school, or in the community. Your art can really be anything that inspires you about frogs or other amphibians. A winning piece from last year’s contest, for example, submitted by Ula Lekecinskaite, a 12-year-old girl from the Kaunus Art Gymnasium in Lithuania, celebrates frogs and rainy days:

We will award winners based on age in these age groups: 3-6, 7-9, and 10-12. The winners will receive a Frogs Are Green poster of their choice from our store and a winner’s certificate. All kids who enter the contest will receive a certificate of participation that can be downloaded from our site.

We’re looking for drawings, paintings, sculpture, collage, mixed media, or whatever format helps you express yourself.

Deadline for submissions is December 15, 2012; winners will be announced January 15, 2013. The winners will be featured in a post.

This year we have a new contest area using Flickr, where you can enter yourself. You must add a caption/ description with your Name, Age, and Country or your submission will not be included. Please see the contest page for more details.

We can’t wait to see your artwork!

And photographers—don’t forget that we are still accepting photographs of frogs and other amphibians for our 2012 photography contest. See the contest page.

02/17/12

Listening to Frog Songs to Understand Climate Change

At Frogs Are Green, we’ve always been interested in the interconnections between frogs and the Earth. How is climate change affecting amphibian populations? Are we listening to what frogs are telling us about the health of our planet?

Recently, we read an intriguing article in the Deccan Herald (India), about how a team of scientists in India are literally listening to frogs to understand the effect of climate change on amphibian populations.

Three scientists, K.S. Seshadri with T. Ganesh, and S. Devy, were doing research 100 feet above the ground in the canopy of the evergreen forest in the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. While getting drenched with rain, they heard a cacophony of frog songs. Intrigued by the songs that the rains triggered, they initiated a program to study frog calls to both monitor populations and to study the affect of climate change on frogs.

Volunteer examines the monkey-proof enclosure for equipment to record frog calls. Photo credit: K. S. Seshadri

Amphibian Meterologists

Frogs can tell us a lot about the weather. Their skin is extremely thin and sensitive; they respond to even small changes in atmospheric moisture and temperature. The scientists reasoned that an analysis of sound recordings, combined with readings from climate data loggers, could help improve our understanding of the impact of climate change.

Climate change seems to underlie many of the threats facing frogs worldwide. By monitoring the frog calls, an activity calendar for each of the indicator species can be made. This long-term monitoring will be invaluable in understanding the greater impact of climate change and also might help to save frog species.

Work station studying frog calls, high up in the forest canopy. Photo credit K. S. Seshadri

As the Deccan Herald put it: “Will the croak alarm finally wake us from our ignorant slumber? The answer lies in the future.”

For more information:

“What Frogs Tell Us About the Planet,” Decclan Herald, India

“Frog song and climate science,” Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment

02/5/12

Good news for endangered California frogs

We were happy to learn that a few days ago the California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to designate two species of native yellow legged frogs inhabiting high-elevation lakes in the Sierra Nevada and Southern California mountain ranges as threatened and endangered species under the state’s Endangered Species Act. The commission acted after the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition outlining the decline.

photo courtesy National Park Service. Department of the Interior

According to the Center, the population of Sierra Yellow legged frogs has decreased by 75% in recent decades. Reading about these frogs, we were struck by how they are a symbol of the challenges that frogs face worldwide. But they aren’t facing one challenge—they seem to be facing almost all of them:

Introduction of nonnative species: Stocking of nonnative trout in high-elevation Sierra lakes has been the main cause of the species’ decline. The trout eat tadpoles and juvenile frogs and alter the food web of the aquatic ecosystems on which the native frogs depend. The Department is recommending no trout stocking in the state without a fish management plan, and no further stocking of trout in areas that would conflict with protecting yellow-legged frogs.

Pesticides: Recent research has linked pesticides that drift from agricultural areas in the Central Valley to declines of native amphibians in the Sierra Nevada. Pesticides and other pollutants can directly kill frogs and also act as environmental stressors that render amphibians more susceptible to diseases, including a chytrid fungus that has recently ravaged many yellow-legged frog populations.

Loss and degradation of habitat: Grazing, logging, water diversions, off-road vehicles and recreational activity are allowed in frog habitat.

Climate change: Climate change has brought warmer temperatures, decreases in runoff, shifts in winter precipitation in the Sierra from snow to rain, and habitat changes that are rendering frog populations more vulnerable to drought-related extinction events.

A recent settlement agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity, which will also speed protection decisions for 756 other species, requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2013 to make a decision about whether to add the Sierra frog to the federal endangered list.

See the Center for Biological Diversity for more information about these frogs and about the other endangered species they are working to protect.

Frogs Are Green

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

Category Archives: Climate change and frogs