Frogs and wetlands preservation

[The Snark]

I'm not sure how I got dragged into this. The folks at the university were trying to take a critter census to determine the health of some wetland and raprarian areas. It wasn't working out too well as the results depended on the ingenuity and stealth of the groups of census takers.
I came up with a weird bright idea a professor bought and tried. They put a tape recorder and microphone in various areas. Then they edited the tape for when the frogs were the most boisterous. Then just play the tape through a graphic equalizer. The broader the spectrum of croaks, the greater the age variation and types of frogs. Areas with only limited high pitched chirps only had young frogs.
Instead of hours of wading through swamps, the graphic LED display would give you the whole census at a glance.

 

[bugmankeith]

That's a great idea, but have you found any frogs with extra limbs, that's why some people need to see and catch a few frogs for observation, to check for malformed frogs.

 

[The Snark]

That's a great idea, but have you found any frogs with extra limbs, that's why some people need to see and catch a few frogs for observation, to check for malformed frogs.

Not extra limbs but are missing toes or an entire leg. That is a point of major concern. Not only the frogs but we have recently encountered geckos missing toes. Several infant frogs have never developed front legs or the legs are malformed. In addition, there has been a study started of canines suddenly going feral in very unusual ways when in contact with wetland areas that are acting as sumps for run off from the cultivated fields. One possibility, mercury, is rather terrifying.

With the amphibians around here the difficulty of keeping track of them is manifold. Many locals consider the frogs a delicacy and are very capable of cleaning out entire fields. They do not respect scientific observation areas. In addition we have cobras. They are extremely capable of mowing through a tadpole and frog population like a harvesting machine. I observed a young cobra completely empty a pond of a guesstimated population of 20-40,000 tadpoles in a 3-4 day period. It was like watching a cow munch it's way through grass.

The problem is, at first the first world was dumping banned pesticides into locations like Thailand, and no doubt still are to some degree. Then the translations of proper use and safety precautions of the chemicals has been questionable, and then many farmers have been combining pesticides that, of course, have not been tested in combination with other chemicals. One documented case has 3 herbicides mixed with two pesticides. Gads only knows what the effects of these chemical soups will be in the long term.

The primary study right now is detecting how many frogs are able to reach full maturity. This wil hopefully help to quickly and easily reveal what areas are problem locations.

 

[Sheri]

This reminds me of a book I picled up about a year ago, about the first gisturbing frog research in the US... I haven't read it yet, but I think I will now.

Many nights Lelle and I have gone mammaling only to end up frogging and toading... (wet dark country roads bring them out in legions for some reason) and I don't think we've ever seen any malformed yet.

Which is reassuring. I become paranoid easily.

 

[jwmeeker]

The Snark-

Just curious which university that you were referring to? I have a friend in the US who is working on his Phd in herpetology and is specifically working with amphibians in Thailand for his thesis. I'm not real sure what method he has been using over there for population counts, but I know he hasn't had any big problems gaining an accurate count.

On another note on the amphibian malformities, this is a link on deformed frogs in Minnesota. http://www.pca.state.mn.us/hot/frogs.html It also has links to other websites, such as the North American Center for Amphibian Malformations and Frog Web: Amphibian Declines and Deformities. Pretty good information on what is going on in the US at the moment.