At this time of year, we’d like to stop and say thank you to all the amphibian lovers out there, and for joining our cause. Thanks to all who entered our contests and brought more awareness to your schools and communities.
While you’re shopping for loved ones, we hope you’ll remember all the great organizations that need your help in this challenging economic climate.
We were thrilled to receive an unprecedented number of entries for our 2011 contests. For our children’s art contest, we received 520 entries from 20 countries around the world! We’ve been so inspired by the imagination and creativity of the paintings, drawings, sculptures, and photographs we’ve received. Our photo contests also received 60+ images and amazing shots!
Right before the deadline we received several hundred more entries. We downloaded, sized, and labeled each piece of art. We did get all the entries into the galleries, but we feel we need more time to go carefully through each piece of art and photograph.
To that end, we have postponed announcing the winners of both contests until January 5th, 2012.
In the meantime, please check that your child’s artwork or your photographs are in the galleries. If you don’t see your entry there, let us know right away. By clicking on the left and right arrows, you will easily see all the entries or can pop a slideshow. The artwork and photography will be permanent “exhibits” on our site.
Also, if you would like to receive a free Frogs Are Green wristband for entering the contest, please be sure we have your address and verify the exact number of wristbands you need (if, for example, you are a teacher and sent in multiple entries from a school). Please put “wristband” in the subject line. (Note: we will use your address for this purpose only and won’t save it.)
We have created a 2012 Kids’ Art Calendar from the winning artwork from last year and would like to create one for 2013 during next year, so also let us know if we have permission use your child’s artwork. If you’d like to purchase the calendar or any of our Frogs Are Green products, that would sure help us pay for all those wristbands and postage! Proceeds go to environmental and amphibian conservation organizations. Thank you so much for making this year’s contests so exciting, we’re so happy to know you care.
Also, if you’d like to get involved, let us know what interests you and how you wish to help. Feel free to email us with your ideas! Sign up for our monthly email in the sidebar to the right and receive our FREE poster download of a red-eyed tree frog!
The amphibian crisis is an environmental issue that hasn’t really hit the mainstream yet. Most people we talk to are surprised to hear that an entire class of animals is in deep trouble, with one-third of amphibian species facing extinction. So we were very happy when Rachel Maddow did a piece two weeks ago on her show about the newly discovered Hula painted frog (Discoglossus nigriventer) (see video below).
Painted Hula Frog from Y Net News Website
Here’s the story of the hula painted frog, from Conservation International’s website:
The frog was discovered in Israel’s Lake Hula, one of the world’s oldest documented lakes, which provided fertile hunting and fishing grounds for humans for tens of thousands of years.
In the early 1950s, the lake and surrounding marshes were drained as a way of tackling malaria. But the costs for doing this were high. Among other environmental problems, draining the lake led to the near extinction of an entire ecosystem and the unique endemic fauna of the lake, including the Hula painted frog. Ironically, species such as the painted frog feed on mosquitoes that carry malaria.
Concern over the draining of Hula grew among the people of Israel, leading to the formation of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and a movement to reflood the Hula Valley. It took 40 years for the protesters’ voices to be heard, but in the mid 1990s, parts of the valley were reflooded.
While much of the ecosystem was restored, not all species re-appeared and it was believed to be too late for the Hula painted frog; the species was declared extinct in 1996 by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The frog became a poignant symbol for extinction in Israel.
Only three adult Hula painted frogs had ever been found. Two of these were collected into captivity in the 1940s, but the larger one ate the smaller one, leaving just one specimen to remember the species by.
The enigmatic frog was selected as one of the “top ten” species during the Search for Lost Frogs last year, highlighting the global importance of this species. It was lost but not forgotten.
Recently, however, Nature and Parks Authority warden Yoram Malka was conducting his routine patrol of the Hula Nature Reserve when something jumped from under him. He lunged after it and caught it: he was holding in his hand the first Hula painted frog seen since the 1950s.
To quote the CI site:
This rediscovery is the icing on the cake of what is a major victory for conservation in Israel: the restoration of a rare and valuable ecosystem. Because Israel has given the Hula Valley a second chance to thrive, the Hula frog has gone from being a symbol of extinction to a symbol of resilience.
Mazel tov, Dr. Moore! And thanks, Rachel, for reporting the story.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Black Friday is almost upon us, and at Frogs Are Green, we’d like you to consider skipping this obnoxious super-shopping day and to participate instead in Green Monday, sponsored by the Nature Conservancy.
Rather than joining the throngs at the mall or the big box stores, why not feel good about the season by contributing time or money to a worthy organization, buying merchandise from these animal/conservation/green organizations, or giving a donation in someone’s name. Especially during a recession, these organizations really need our help. Here are some we came up with. Please let us know in the comments if there are others you would recommend:
Save the Frogs. Dr. Kerry Kriger is a one-man frog advocate. Go to the Save the Frogs site to check out all the activities going on there. How about adopting a frog for a frog-loving friend or family member?
Sea Turtle Conservancy. While you are it, why not adopt a sea turtle, too? When you adopt a sea turtle from the Sea Turtle Conservancy, you get a lovely personalized certificate, a plastic turtle, get to name the turtle, track where the turtle is online, and it all comes in a beautifully designed folder. This makes a really nice gift—Susan and I have given them to friends and family.
Continuing the herpetological theme, The Sea Turtle Restoration Project has some really nice sea turtle items. Who needs a Lacoste polo when you can get one of these nifty sea turtle polo shirts. Proceeds from the sale of the shirts will go toward sea turtle conservation:
The National Wildlife Federation. The NWF has some great gifts: cards, plush animals, plant-a-tree jewelry, books, and so on. Here’s a book we liked for the gardeners in your family. It’s full of information about gardening for wildlife (including our amphibian friends), as well as information about everything you need to know to create a Certified Wildlife Habitat.
Consider supporting Heifer International. This makes a great group gift from a school, Scout troup, church, or synagogue. It’s a fun and meaningful project for kids to raise enough money to buy, for example, a gift of a heifer ($500). When a family receives a cow, every morning there’s a glass of rich milk for the children to drink before heading off to school. Classes are paid with the income from the sale of milk, and there’s even enough to share with the neighbors. The sale of surplus milk earns money for school fees, medicine, clothing, and home improvement. Less expensive gifts include a “Flock of Hope” ($60).
image courtesy of Heifer International
Support your local animal shelter. Animal shelters need volunteers to walk dogs, socialize cats, raise funds, etc. Of course, you might end up with a new member of the family, just in time for the holidays. An alternative to bringing an animal home is to sponsor a special-needs animal from the North Shore (NY) Animal League or another shelter.
So many of our posts this past year came from Conservation Organization’s Lost Frog Campaign. They are doing wonderful work around the world to save amphibians. While they don’t have a store, you can donate money to honor someone and they will send a personalized e-card.
You might want to Adopt an Acre for someone (from The Nature Conservancy). Here’s one we liked: an acre in Costa Rica, where “howler monkeys greet the break of dawn with a thunderous roar while scarlet macaws wing over treetops as the sun begins its slow trek across the sky. The rainforest is alive with a wealth of magnificent plant and wildlife, including jaguar, puma, sloths, tapirs, poison-dart frogs and four species of monkey.”
Adopt an Acre in Costa Rica
The Farm Sanctuary. I visited The Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY, with my family last fall and I can’t imagine a more bucolic place, with the most contented animals I’ve ever seen. We felt as if we were in a children’s picture book, but it was real. This organization provides a lifetime sanctuary for rescued and abused farm animals. Here’s their store, with books, apparel, etc.
Give your support to other less well known organizations: We were moved by last week’s guest post about The Beautiful Frog Association’s efforts in the Czech Republic to save the European Green Toad. Why not help support this cause or another cause that isn’t a household name, where your money will make a big impact? Some other causes we’ve featured on Frogs Are Green: Global Amphibian Blitz, Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project, The Endangered Western Leopard Toad (South Africa), and The Frog Caller.
We would also appreciate any help you can give us here at Frogs Are Green. This year, for example, our kids’ art contest really took off. We’ve received entries from children all over the world, and we’re proud that we have been able to spread our message to so many new people. How about buying a few wristbands as stocking stuffers for your frog-loving friends or family, or buying one of our lovely posters, 2012 calendar, or the Ribbit t-shirt below? Your purchase will help us as we develop our offshoot organization, Frogs Are Green Kids.
Please enjoy a lovely, stress-free, and GREEN holiday!
We were so excited to receive this guest post and photography from Jan Knizek in the Czech Republic. Please read about the efforts of Krásná žába, o.s. [Beautiful Frog Association] to help preserve the breeding area of the European Green Toad.
WHO WE ARE
Krásná žába, o.s. [Beautiful Frog Association] is a non-profit organisation that was founded with the aim to save one of few rare areas in Prague, Czech Republic, where European Green Toads can still breed.
OUR CAUSE
In 2010, we had discovered a dwindling but still surviving population of the toads at a future building site, in an area where the toads once proliferated. However, due to development projects like the one we are currently fighting to stop, their population has been continually displaced.
Discovering a small surviving population of these admirable animals, which had practically disappeared from here years ago, was a great and joyful surprise, and we are determined to do everything we can to save their last remaining breeding ground in the area, which is vital to the survival of the animals.
Stopping a development project involves a lot of effort. We need to convince local authorities that giving preference to the environment over a developer’s interest is vital in this case, last but not least because the European Green Toad is on the IUCN red list of endangered species and protected within the EU. Bringing about the destruction of the local population of toads by wrecking its breeding ground would be a crime.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE SO FAR
We have therefore filed an application to have the area listed as a place of significant environmental interest and supplied authorities with plenty of photos and documents to prove that the green toad population is indigenous (i.e. it has not been attracted to the area only after the building site had been set up), and that the development project is in breach of the law and needs to be stopped.
We are also in close cooperation with the Czech TV Channel (Česká televize) who have made a documentary on the issue and aired it on the national TV Channel 1.
We have also found support amongst local people who took part in a charity musical event we organised to help us fund our activities, since many of them do know the area very well and are interested in its preservation for a whole range of reasons, last but not least the toads.
Organisations supporting our activities include the Czech Union for Nature Conservation (ČSOP) who have also provided a little financial contribution to our association.
Once we achieve an official recognition of the site as a natural reserve, we are planning on maintaining it in a condition that would be ideal for breeding of the local European Green Toads who come here every spring to lay eggs in seasonal pools of rain water. Preventing access of traffic and any adverse intervention into the toad’s natural habitat is vital. Another important thing is further education of local people who absolutely should be aware of how precious an area they live in.
So far we’ve been addressed by a number of organisations who were curious to know more about what we do, including an environmentally-focused youth club interested in a lecture on this local issue.
We have encountered displeasure on the part of some local authorities and developers, but we have also encountered a lot of interest and support amongst local people who would feel badly betrayed if the local government preferred financial interests (i.e. the developers’) over public welfare, an indispensable part of which is protection of the environment and conservation of nature.
THE VISION
At the beginning, there was an unsightly building site and a development project in progress. Local people were unaware of any problem and authorities were reluctant to listen.
At the moment, there is still an unsightly building site, but a part of the development project has been suspended and another part of it reduced so that the toad’s breeding ground we are most concerned about would not be affected. Many locals know about the European Green Toad now, have educated themselves about the development project, and are in support of our activities. Authorities have started communicating with us and have actually shown the first spark of interest in supporting our cause.
In the future, we hope there will be a beautiful green area where local people can come on a warm spring evening to sit and listen to the melodic croak of this exceptionally beautiful toad, smell the flowers and trees, and enjoy a small oasis of nature in the middle of a bustling city – that is our mission.
You can find more information about the European Green Toad and our activities at our website.
And if you have any questions, you are of course welcome to contact us any time.
It’s almost Halloween and what animal is more associated with this spooky holiday than any other? The answer isn’t frogs, it’s bats.
Unlike frogs, however, which seem to have lots of human friends and supporters, bats have few. Most people find them pretty creepy. They’re associated with vampires and other scary things.
I learned about bats many years ago when I lived in Ohio. When I visited friends’ homes out in the country, bats would often emerge at sunset, and they were quite beautiful, flying up into the sky. I also watched a swarm of bats emerge at sunset from Carlsbad Canyons in New Mexico (see video below), a daily natural spectacle.
Did these bats make a beeline for the humans so they could bite them and suck their blood? No. They ignored us humans completely, focused instead on finding some tastier prey—mosquitoes and other insects.
Unfortunately bats seem to be sharing the fate of frogs and bees—they are vanishing because of a mysterious fungal disease. As Sandra Steingrabber writes in Raising Elijah: Protecting Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis: “The possible contribution of pesticides and climate change to the bats’ malady is a topic of discussion among field biologists—as is the synchronous vanishings of fungal-afflicted honeybees and frogs.”
In 2006 scientists found hundreds of dead bats inside several caves across the country—all had white muzzles, the result of a fungus. Bats with this white-nose disease were subsequently found in 115 different caves from Tennessee to Quebec. The fungus grows on the exposed skin of a hibernating bat and causes the bat to wake up, behave strangely, and burn up its fat reserves, thus starving to death.
The disease has claimed the lives of a million bats across 19 states. More than half of the bat species in the United States are in severe decline or are listed as endangered.
A World Without Bats
So what would the world be like without bats?
Imagine being swarmed by insects and bitten by mosquitoes from head to toe. Imagine pests wiping out agriculture across the country, causing produce prices to go up.
If the decline of bats continues these scary scenarios could be our reality.
We need these spooky, fast-flying mammals that can eat 1,200 insects in an hour, protecting us from the West Nile Virus and other deadly diseases.*
So this Halloween, amid all the Batman and vampire costumes, don’t forget that bats are pretty amazing—and important—animals that need our help. One way you can help bats is to build a bat house. Here’s some information from the National Wildlife Federation.
Here’s a video of Mexican free-tail bats emerging at sunset at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, to eat their evening meal of millions of insects:
For more information:
From the Incredible Disappearing Bat, Nature Conservancy site.
