Consider the frog, the toad, & all their kin
Climate change is the environmental issue that gets most press, in part because it has such immediate relevance to business. The catastrophic collapse of species numbers and diversity also deserves immediate attention. One of the successes of COP 28 this month is that, “Under the agreement struck in Dubai on Wednesday, governments are obliged to consider the natural world and carbon stores such as forests while developing their next round of nationally determined contributions to the Paris agreement.” Read more.
The World Wild Life Fund (WWF) estimates that since 1970, the amount of vertebrate biomass on the planet has fallen by 60 percent; in fresh-water habitats, biomass in neotropical zones has fallen by 96 percent. Evidence is gathering of a sixth extinction event, because background rates of species extinction is higher than at any time in the last 250 million years.
The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.
I have had a chance over the last couple of years to observe a tiny piece of nature, day to day, and more closely than ever before. Even though I took a class in bio-ecology when I was 13 and have been writing about the environment for years, the COVID-19 lockdown was the first time I stayed put long enough to watch, and listen, to get to know a few of the small creatures who make up life on earth.
Settled under loose earth and dead leaves or sinking into silky mud at the bottom of a pond, amphibia are out of sight this time of year in the colder parts of the northern hemisphere. But they shouldn’t be out of mind.
As Frogs Disappear Worldwide
Mysterious deaths have occurred all over the planet and followed a similar pattern. Why have so many species vanished? And what does it all have to do with us?
. . . As filmmakers, we’ve covered the extinction of species and other ecological issues in our work for years. Mammals, reptiles, insects, fish — much of the planet’s wild fauna is threatened with extinction. But no other vertebrate class is as threatened as amphibians. Herpetologists like Dr. Lips don’t just fear for individual species; they fear for the class Amphibia as a whole. . . . This is about much more than frogs and salamanders. It is about all life on our planet. Video here.
The upshot of that piece is that funguses deadly to frogs are being transported from one part of the globe to another via international shipping systems. Nature is threatened by species-specific pandemics, in fact, reminiscent of COVID-19 in terms of spread.
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A 19th-century Naturalist
Mary C. Dickerson was an American naturalist of the 19th century, a most extraordinary woman and writer, whose The Frog Book I bought in a beautiful reprint from Dover. I wish they were as profuse today as they were in her time. And then there are toads. Here’s one of her evocative stories:
At the close of a hot summer's day we sit on the doorstep of a country house, delighting in the coolness and repose, and watching the lengthening shadows of grape-trellis, well-curb, and house. A fat toad comes out from under the doorstep, where he has been quietly sleeping all day; another, clean and bright-eyed, comes from under the sidewalk at our feet. They start off with leisurely hops toward the garden to search for caterpillars and other delicious morsels of a toad's menu. We watch their retreating backs until they disappear among rows of beets and lettuce, and we wish them " good hunting."
Night after night, summer after summer, toads come out in search of food. They become a part of the place. They help to make the home and contribute their share in its work. Toads choose cool, moist places in which to live. They are often found in cellars, under porches and sidewalks, and in various dark or damp hiding-places. They seek such locations not only for the shelter, but also for the moisture.
A toad never has the pleasure of drinking water in the usual way. All the water that he gets is absorbed through his skin. A toad kept in a dry place grows thinner and more distressed-looking, and is likely to die within a few days; whereas one provided with plenty of moisture remains plump and contented as the weeks go by, even when there is a scarcity of food.
I haven’t seen a toad here in the Berkshires, but I heard that they are abundant in a friend’s Philadelphia neighborhood. Dickerson’s chapter on Green Frogs, the ones I know well, tells me that I am observing the same creatures, more than 150 years after she published her book. She writes:
The activity and the spirit of adventure which characterize the Green Frog are evident very early . . . Unlike the young Bullfrog, which constantly hides under water or miss, the young Green Frog is curious and alert, and always in evidence.
In fact, I saw a Green Frog sitting on a moss-covered rock just a week ago, on one of the warmer days we’ve had this December. I’ve seen a few swimming, and the photo below shows two floating near the pondweed one November afternoon, catching the rays. They are not green Green Frogs now, but have put on dark winter coats.
You can see the color difference in this video from the summer.
Save the Frogs
My favorite thing about Instagram is the nature photos and videos (along with NASA photos from space). There is a wonderful bird channel, and I was hoping to find one devoted to frogs and other amphibia. No luck, but I discovered that there is an organization devoted to them:
SAVE THE FROGS! is the world’s most effective amphibian conservation organization
Frog populations have been declining worldwide at unprecedented rates, and nearly one-third of the world’s amphibian species are threatened with extinction. Since 2008, SAVE THE FROGS! has been at the forefront of worldwide amphibian conservation efforts.
Founded by ecologist Dr. Kerry Kriger in 2008, SAVE THE FROGS! is an international team of scientists, educators, policymakers and naturalists dedicated to protecting the world’s amphibian species: the frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, and caecilians.
Here are some winter tips and great photos from the UK organization FrogLife: “Reptiles and Amphibians in Winter.”
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