02/17/19

Winners of the 2018 Rainforest Photo Contest

We’re pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 Frogs Are Green Rainforest Photo Contest.
 

1st Place, Keeled slug eating snake, Pareas Carinatus, photographed by Kris Bell

1st Place, Keeled slug eating snake, Pareas Carinatus, photographed by Kris Bell.

2nd Place, Asian Vine Snake, Ahaetulla Prasina, photographed by Shani Cohen

2nd Place, Asian Vine Snake, Ahaetulla Prasina, photographed by Shani Cohen

3rd Place, A nonchalant frog by Elliot Pelling, photographer

3rd Place, A nonchalant frog by Elliot Pelling, photographer

Maned Forest Lizard (Broncochela jubata), Farits Alhadi

Maned Forest Lizard (Broncochela jubata), Farits Alhadi

Harlequin Tree Frog (Rhacophorus pardalis)-South Kalimantan, Zain Basriansyah

Harlequin Tree Frog (Rhacophorus pardalis)-South Kalimantan, Zain Basriansyah

Farits Alhadi, Chiromantis vittiger, The male guarding his eggs until hatching, Indonesia

Farits Alhadi, Chiromantis vittiger, The male guarding his eggs until hatching, Indonesia

Cave Racer - Orthriophis taeniurus, photographed by Elliot Pelling

Cave Racer - Orthriophis taeniurus, photographed by Elliot Pelling

1st-Place-Keeled-slug-eating-snake-Pareas-Carinatus-Photographed-by-Kris-Bell thumbnail
2nd-Place-Asian-Vine-Snake-Ahaetulla-Prasina-photographed-by-Shani-Cohen thumbnail
3rd-Place-a-nonchalant-frog-Elliot-Pelling-photographer thumbnail
Maned Forest Lizard (Broncochela jubata), Farits Alhadi thumbnail
Harlequin Tree Frog (Rhacophorus pardalis)-South Kalimantan, Zain Basriansyah thumbnail
farits alhadi, Chiromantis vittiger, The male guarding his eggs until hatching, Indonesia thumbnail
Cave Racer - Orthriophis taeniurus, Elliot Pelling thumbnail

 

Winners:

1st Place – Kris Bell, Keeled slug-eating snake (Pareas carinatus), photographed in Thailand.
2nd Place – Shani Cohen, Asian Vine Snake – Ahaetulla prasina, photographed at Krabi Province, Thailand.
3rd Place – Elliot Pelling, A nonchalant frog. A green vine snake (Ahaetulla nasuta) having just caught a frog (Fejervarya kudremukhensis).
 

Honorable Mentions:

Farits Alhadi, Maned Forest Lizard (Broncochela jubata) This lizard was photographed in West Java, Indonesia.
Zain Basriansyah, Harlequin Tree Frog (Rhacophorus pardalis)-South Kalimantan
Farits Alhadi, Chiromantis vittiger – The male guarding his eggs until hatching, Indonesia.
Elliot Pelling, Cave Racer – Orthriophis taeniurus
 

12/13/15

Reptile Kingdom Resides in Painting Workshop

Dec.6, 2015
Text by LAN Lianchao
Video by LAN Lianchao & CHANG Zhuojin & SHI Xinyue & LIU Yuting

Hundreds of transparent boxes are piled up against the wall, with simulated wild environments. The residents of those cubical rooms have watched the day and night of the painting workshop, ARTTRA, for seven years.

The vivarium belongs to a painter, Herman Chan, 41, who has over 100 reptiles from about 50 species.

“Maybe you can not find a second painting workshop with so many reptiles in Hong Kong,” he says.

Chan’s pets attract people who learn painting in a way of improving their ability of observation. Reptile knowledge is a bonus for curious students.

Chan says he collects and breeds various species of reptiles on purpose. “I enjoy taking care of them technically,” he says.

The first reptile owned by Chan was a salamander when he was in the primary school. Since then he has never stopped.

Chan used to raise his reptiles at home, afraid of customers’ resistance against them. He says he hopes to stay with them more, not only the time after work.

Not until he took a chameleon to the studio did he find the charisma of his pets. Children are really into it and inspired to watch the detailed of the animal, Chan says.

Meanwhile Chan tells them chameleons change color due to the temperature, humidity or light, not the background colors thought by many people.

“The studio is a perfect combination of my hobby and job,” Chan adds. “It is an incubator for my reptiles and my painting.”

Chan Tsz Yin Andrea, 5 yrs old, Hong Kong, Arttra.

Chan Tsz Yin Andrea, 5 yrs old, Hong Kong, Arttra.

With the Frogs Are Green annual children’s art contest deadline approaching, you can see how engaged the young students are by learning about amphibians and reptiles, seeing them up close, and then expressing themselves through art. I’m thrilled that Herman’s students entered our annual contest!

This blog was originally posted on https://lanlianchao.wordpress.com Frogs Are Green has permission to repost it.

04/5/15

How Awareness Really Catches Fire

The phone is ringing and a friend is excited to tell me there’s a discussion about frogs right now on WNYC radio. Robin Moore, the author and photographer of “In Search of Lost Frogs,” is being interviewed on the Leonard Lopate Show (The Conservation Efforts Trying to Keep Frogs From Going Extinct). At the same moment, a Jersey City colleague is emailing me about the same thing and writes that she’s left a comment about Frogs Are Green and our kids frog art project on WNYC’s website.

During the interview they discuss many of the issues that frogs face today, including the deadly Chytrid Fungus and climate change. One caller asks about the drought situation in California and its toll on frogs. They also talk about how many frog species have gone extinct in the wild and at the same time new species are being discovered, as close as New York. They also talk about how important the medical research is as they test the poisonous skin of dart frogs.

dart frog by devin edmonds

Dart Frog courtesy of Devin Edmonds

Almost every day, Facebook friends post on my timeline or the Frogs Are Green page, or Tweet at us about frogs and/or the environment.

I’m sharing this because it was six years ago this May that I founded Frogs Are Green, and so many people laughed at this cause. They’d say, “Frogs? … Who’s going to care about frogs?”

I’m happy to tell you that in six years we have reached over a million people. Each month we have 13,000 visitors who look at more than 32,000 pages, which gives us an amazing bounce rate of 1.8 %. Yes, that is not a misprint, we have a 1.8% bounce rate. These stats have been holding steady for years and are again on the rise.

We didn’t used to post on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn (groups) and Twitter every day, but in 2014 we made a commitment to do so and reach more people than ever.

As the above story shows, our mission is working. Awareness really begins to catch fire when others know you so well that they support and advance your campaign goals without hesitation.

It all comes from zeroing in on a niche and being consistent by sharing every day. By being “top of mind” on a particular thing that’s so different, so unique, they just see frogs and think of Frogs Are Green.

10 Tips for building your nonprofit’s awareness and following

  • Make sure that your website (the nucleus of your online presence) is 100% on target in expressing your mission and goals. On your homepage be brief and entice, don’t overwhelm with too many calls to action. Make sure your brand and mission are crystal clear. Be sure you are blogging and/or adding new, valuable content consistently.
  • Be sure when you blog, post, or tweet, you are adding an appropriate and eye-catching photo that will prompt others to share it, not just “like” it.
  • Be sure you are using #hashtags but don’t go crazy with them, lest no one will see or read your post… (I see this a lot on Instagram; so many hashtags I can’t find the message!)
  • Don’t try to sell all the time with posts/tweets about buying products, classes or donating to your cause. Once in a while is all right, but you will really build your audience by sharing significant information. As they move around your website reading articles they will come to respect your efforts and just may click that donate button on their own.
  • Your “competition” organization is your friend. Remember, you are both trying to help others, save wildlife and the environment, and so those that follow those other organizations may follow you too! Be kind and retweet.
  • If you are planning to boost or advertise, make sure you are being selective about the information and target audience. Do your homework and know where your target is, both online or offline.
  • Remember that your target audience can be in many different places. Be sure to review your Google Analytics each week and identify if what you are doing is working. For example, if you are spending most of your social media time on Facebook but when you look at your stats you have more people visiting your site from Twitter, you should tweet more often than you are!
  • People consume content in many different ways, so be sure you are creating video for YouTube, audio for Podcasting, Powerpoint (for Slideshare or LinkedIn), photo galleries on Flickr, Pinterest and Facebook, blog posts that can embed these other media files, graphic images, and more… (and then share across social sites).
  • When you have new media to share, don’t post on every social site at the same time and then not post for a week until the next post. Schedule different places each day so your content is circulating all the time.
  • Be sure to alert the local media about events and other important news so that they can write about you. If you don’t tell them yourself, how do you expect them to know? Publicity helps awareness and begets more publicity.

Frogs Are Green was fortunate to interview Robin Moore on a podcast also. Listen here >> Robin Moore

03/23/15

Keeping Your Pond Alive

The water in your garden pond is very sensitive to change. Depending on a number of factors, a pond can soon go from crystal clear to pea soup without any apparent explanation. You will quickly learn that pond pollutants can hide in the clearest water.

frog in a pond

Filtration

An easy first step to ensuring a healthy pond environment is the use of a good filter and you should contact a specialist retailer, like Swell UK, who can advise you on the best solution. Biological filters will break down harmful toxins, like ammonia from fish waste, so they can be either removed or absorbed by the plant life in your pond. A UV filter will also help keep green water and algae at bay and keep down the levels of bacteria that could be harmful to the life in your pond.

A good water balance

High nitrate or pH levels in your pond can bring about the most common pond problem: algae. Algae can cause havoc in ponds, keeping light and oxygen from the plants and animals that need them. Regular testing should be carried out to keep on top of the environment in the water before an algae problem breaks out. You can pick up kits for any potential problem from online stores like Swell UK. These give you the all important heads-up you need to take action.

A key part of maintaining the right water balance is ensuring you use a good liner that will not only resist damage but ensure any outside nitrate sources, like fertilizer, are prevented from seeping through.

Oxygen

Oxygen plays a vital role in ensuring the good health of your pond. Without oxygen, certain bacteria found towards the bottom of ponds will begin to produce acids and toxins that will harm the fish, insects and helpful bacteria that may live in your pond. By planting particular oxygenating plants, you can create a natural balance of oxygen levels, but only during the day. By making use of an air pump or any water feature that will disturb the water surface, you can maintain a good oxygen level throughout the day, protecting the well being of your pond.

12/31/14

Pobblebonk Frogs in Australia

Rosemary Horton from Australia likes to keep Frogs Are Green readers up to date with her efforts to save frogs.

The photos below were taken with an ordinary digital camera through the lens of a school microscope, and shows the eggs and development of Pobblebonk Frogs (Limnodynastes dumerilii) to where she is ready to return them to suitable unpolluted areas.

Pobblebonk frog eggs Australia
 
Pobblebonk frog eggs Australia
 
Pobblebonk frog eggs Australia
 
Pobblebonk frog eggs Australia
 
Pobblebonk frog eggs Australia
 
Pobblebonk frogs Australia
 

About Pobblebonk Frogs from Wikipedia.org:

Limnodynastes dumerilii is a frog species from the family Myobatrachidae. The informal names for this species, and its subspecies, include Eastern or Southern Banjo Frog, and Bull frog. The frog is also called the pobblebonk after its distinctive “bonk” call, which is likened to a banjo string being plucked. It is native to eastern Australia and has been introduced to New Zealand. There are five subspecies of L. dumerilii, each with different skin coloration.

07/2/09

Rachel Carson's Legacy

Just this past week, I re-read Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book Silent Spring. First published in 1962, Silent Spring was a wake-up call, warning people about the devastating effects of chemical pesticides on humans and on wildlife. The book spurred changes in laws affecting our air, land, and water.

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My husband reminded me that when he was a boy in the pre-Silent Spring era, he and his friends chased the “Skeeter Truck” on summer days in his suburban Philadelphia neighborhood, breathing in clouds of DDT fumes. DDT has since been banned in this country, and obviously we’ve learned a lot since then. And yet we still don’t fully understand the effects of the various chemicals that are in the products we consume, eat, drink, and use on a regular basis.

A few days ago, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote an op-ed piece, “It’s Time to Learn from the Frogs.” After watching Hedrick Smith’s Frontline show, “Poisoned Waters,” he became concerned about chemicals called endrocrine distruptors (you can watch the show online). These chemicals—widely used in agriculture, industry, and consumer products—have been connected to increases in frog deformities and might also be connected to the rise of abnormalities in newborn boys, particularly genital deformities.

If you go to Kristof’s blog, On the Ground, you can read over 200 comments about his op-ed piece (published June 27th). One of the commenters mentioned that the Rachel Carson Homestead is sponsoring a conference on September 25, 2009, to address this issue. If you click here, you can download from their website an informative 6-page PDF about endrocrine disruptors. I admit I was surprised to learn that a type called phthalates are found in plastics used for food and drink containers, plastic wraps, soft plastic children’s toys, shampoos, shower curtains, and nail polish—to name just to name a few. One would have to live in a plastic bubble to avoid them (or rather an organic non-plastic bubble). In a another post, I will explore the ways in which we can avoid at least some of these chemicals.

Carson’s legacy continues….

UPDATE:  A couple of days after I wrote this, I found out that Stephen Colbert interviewed Nicholas Kristof about this subject on June 27th. Here’s a link to the Colbert Nation where you can watch the episode.  I’m a big fan of Stephen Colbert. Here’s a fun fact you might not know: he once wanted to be a marine biologist.