It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a frog?

The Wallace’s Flying Frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus) doesn't spend it's time like some frogs, swimming or hopping around, It spends it's life in the trees. When It needs to escape from a predator, it jumps and glides to another tree! It has a lot of webbing in between it's toes to catch the air and glide, and extra padding on their toes to help them land.
They can glide up to 50 feet and land on tree branches or sometimes the ground, although they usually only go on the ground to mate or lay eggs.

It grows to be about 4 inches long. It can be found in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Fortunately, This species of frog is considered "Least Concern" on the endangered list. Lets hope this amazing frog species keeps its numbers up and lives long!

A Frog Prince

The Prince Charles stream tree frog(Hyloscirtus princecharlesi) was recently named after Prince Charles. Amphibian Ark decided to name the frog after Prince Charles because of his rainforests project, which raises awareness of deforestation and climate change. This rare frog was found in 2008 by Luis A. Coloma in the Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park in Ecuador. It is in the family hylidae(tree frogs) and the genus hyloscritus, which contains 28 types of frogs.

And The Ugliest Frog Award Goes To...

Yes, this is really a frog.


The Purple Frog ( Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) is an Indian frog that was discovered in 2003. It spends most of the year underground and only comes out for about 2 weeks during the monsoon for breeding. It has a very thin, snout-like mouth and it's call sounds like a chicken's cluck. It is a living fossil, and allthough it lives in India, It is in the Sooglossidae family, which has it's origins in the Seychelles islands. The reason for this is that 100 million years ago, Madagascar, India,and the Seychelles were a landmass that split because of continental drift.

A see-through frog!

The Glass Frog (hyalinobatrachium pellucidum) grows up to 3 inches,has a lime green color, and of course, has transparent skin on it's stomach. You can see their liver, heart and GI Tract without harming the frog. Think about how many frogs could be saved if kids just looked at a Glass frog in science class instead of cutting one open! They generally live near rivers or streams or in forests.They lay their eggs on leaves to protect them from predators, but it does make them more vulnerable to parasites.Unfortunately, The glass frog has been endangered since 2004 because of loss of habitat. There are less than 5,000 glass frogs today.

The Prehistoric Devil

The Devil Frog( Beelzebufo) was the biggest, meanest frog ever to exist. It lived in Madagascar during the Cretaceous period at the end of the age of dinosaurs. It grew up to 16 inches, and weighed 10 pounds. It was likely that it ate mammals, amphibians, and even baby dinosaurs! It is an ancestor of Pac-Man Frogs, they live on land and snap up small animals, which is most likely what Devil frogs did. The largest frog alive is the Goliath frog(Conraua goliath), which is 12 inches long and weighs 3 pounds.

The Amazing Amphibian Wrestling Match

Today's article adds on to the crazy facts about Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs ( see yesterday's post).
 The male Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs are very territorial and will call almost continuously to mark their territory. When one male Strawberry Poison Dart Frog annoys another, they have a wrestling match that can go on for up to 20 minutes. Once one of the frogs is pinned down, they are the loser and the winner lets the looser walk away.

A hard working parent

The Strawberry Poison Dart Frog (Oophpaga Pumilio) can be found in Central America and grow to be about 17.5–22 mm in length.While most frogs lay thousands of eggs at a time and will leave them to fend for themselves,a Strawberry Poison Dart Frog will lay 4 to 6 eggs at a time. At the start of their lives, each  tadpole is cared for individually, and they each have their own pool of water to live in.
Obviously, if  Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs can care for up to 6 children in separate places each day, they are very hard working parents. 

After the female lays the eggs, the male watches over them and keeps them moist by peeing on them for about 10 days (until they hatch). Once they hatch , the mother takes each tadpole to the top of  a tree ( can be up to 40 ft) to put them each in the center of a bromeliad   which has leaves that form a cup that collects water. They can not be placed in the same plant because they are cannibalistic. Every few days after that for 6-8 weeks (until tadpoles change to frogs) the mother has to climb to the top of the trees again and lay unfertilized eggs for the tadpoles to eat. While the father does some work, the mother does most of it and spends the most energy. To say the least, these frogs are very good parents.

Australian toadlet.

Today I found 2 articles about a small Australian toad that was recently discovered. It is called the Pilbara toadlet and the scientific name is Uperoleia saxatilis. Both articles are about the same thing, but I think the one from cosmosmagazine.com is more descriptive.

It is about 2 centimeters long and it is a burrowing frog. It can be found in creeks and rocky gorges.The discovery of this toadlet proves that  there is more diversity in Australia's amphibians than scientists thought. Including the Pilbara toadlet, there are about 27 toadlet species. apparently, little is known about the Pilbara toadlet. they might have studied it more now because both of the articles are from July 26.

a picture that was in both of the articles

cosmosmagazine.com/new australian toadlet species discovered

www.upi.com/Tiny toad found in Australian desert

More chytrid fungus

hey! remember the last post I made? in part of the post, I was talking about chytrid fungus.Well today, I found an article talking about different techniques to " prevent the effects of the disease and curb potential future extinctions."

 the article said that the researchers warn it is still too soon to recommend the treatments, as the fungus may develop a resistance to them.

            one technique from the article was keeping infected tadpoles in a place that is over 68.9 degrees
          fahrenheit, which is hotter than they are used to. Then when they are grown up, they are set free.
          of course, this doesn't always work.
          scientists have also tried bathing frogs in antifungal itraconazole, which slows down the infection of  chytrid fungus.

 article website: http://www.livescience.com/15315-frog-fungus-treatment.html

The Pond is Back!

Today I am going to write about a pretty simple article. It is called " How Eating Frog Legs is Causing Frog Extinction."
frogs are a very popular food all over the world. Many restaurants sell them, and they areconsidered a delicacy in some places.

According to a new report, an average of 2,280 metric tons of frog legs are imported into this country each year—that's the equivalent of somewhere between 450 million and 1.1 billion frogs.

If that's just for the United States, imagine how many frogs are sold worldwide. To put it shortly - to many!
According to the article, the two main reasons that this is a problem are:
. Too many frogs are being taken out of the wild.
&
. live frogs spreading chytrid fungus

A basic description of chytrid fungus:  a fungus that clogs up the skin of frogs and kills them. frogs that have chytrid fungus can pass it on to other frogs. that's why transporting live frogs is a problem.

savethefrogs.com  has a section on their website about eating frog legs. They also have a petition you can participate in against restaurants serving frog legs.

Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked for public comments on a proposal to ban the import of live frogs under the Lacey Act, which regulates the import or transport of wildlife species that are either dangerous to humans or the environment. The public comment period ended in December; there is no word yet on if the proposal will become law. 

the article web address: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=how-eating-frog-legs-is-causing-fro-2011-07-27

Snow Frogs

I don't think most people know this, but some frogs live in the snow! Frogs are cold blooded, that means that their body temperature is the same as the outdoor temperature. There is an article about it on National Geographic.com . Apparently, frogs that live in the snow grow slower, but live longer.

Here are some pictures fromNational Geographic.com

Save The Frogs Day!

This year, April 29th, is the 3rd national Save The Frogs Day. Save The Frogs Day is a day to celebrate, raise awareness of, and save the frogs! On the Save The Frogs website ( savethefrogs.com ) there is a special page just for Save The Frogs Day. (  Save The Frogs Day ) and from that page you can register a project you will be doing on the 29th to save the frogs. It's a little late to plan anything big now, but you could do something small and quick, like me. I am making a power-point slide show to present during my school assembley. To make it more fun, I have a little quiz about frogs on it and I am giving out a piece of candy or plastic toy if someone gets a question right. If you want a link to the registration form for Save The Frogs Day, here it is : 
Save The Frogs Day registration 

 


 

quiz answers 2

 (*correct answers in red)


1)Which one of these does not mean frog?
A)Kaeru
B)grenouille
C)rana
D)la joie   (it means joy in french)

 
The strawberry frog lays eggs for her babies to eat
A)true
B)false
The strawberry frog lays all her tadpoles in seprate flowers at the top of trees in the rain forest. Every day she lays unfertalized eggs for her babies to eat.


the word Amphibian means:
A) wet creature
B) long jumps
C) two lives
D) sticky limbs


there are frogs that have lived more than 20 years
A) true
B) false
 there are frogs who have lived more than 30 years in captivity!


frogs have eyelids
A) true
B) false

Frog quiz 2!!

here is another (short) quiz about frogs! I will post the answers tommorow.

1)Which one of these does not mean frog?
A)Kaeru
B)grenouille
C)rana
D)la joie

The strawberry frog lays eggs for her babies to eat
A)true
B)false

the word Amphibian means:
A) wet creature
B) long jumps
C) two lives
D) sticky limbs

there are frogs that have lived more than 20 years
A) true
B) false

frogs have eyelids
A) true
B) false

newly bred hybrid frog

I saw an article on livescience.com about a newly bred frog. It's parents are Agalychnis moreletii (the father) and Agalychnis annae  (the mother). They are very similar frogs. They are endangered and they are both leaf frogs.


here is a description of the frog and it's parents:

The parents look very much alike – in fact their skulls are nearly indistinguishable – but they have different coloration. Their love child resembles both, but is also distinct. It has dark red irises like the papa frog A. moreletii, and the purple-to-blue coloration along its flanks and thighs, like most A. annae, the mama frog. However, its hands and feet are more intense orange than seen in either parent.

the newly bred hybrid frog

My first reaction was, "WOW, this is cool!". Then I thought, "but what was the point of doing it?"  Well aperantly, knowing the behaviors between and of different species of frog is very inportant to conserving them.

 Hybridization experiments like this are helpful in better understanding the inheritance of genes in amphibians, including those determining color patterns, the researchers write.  

 I still am a little fuzzy on how that helps frogs, but I'm sure it does.

 It doesn't  reallty say how they got the frogs to breed, it just says:

 A scientist at The Manchester Museum in England allowed the two species of endangered Central American leaf frogs housed within the same chamber to interbreed.

 So I am kind of curious about that.

I wonder if they will ever name the new frog or breed more.

here is the link to the article: Scientist Creates One-of-a-Kind Frog

Frog poem

frogs, frogs, everywhere
if you have one as a pet treat it with care

orange,red,green,and blue,
fun and cool and very cute too!

some are big, some are small
there are so many I can't name them all

 I cant list all but here are a few:
Golaith frog, Tomato frog, and Tree frog too!

frogs, frogs, everywhere
if you have one as a pet treat it with care

Save The Frogs Day!

Just a reminder, Save The Frogs Day is in April.

Save The Frogs Day is a day to raise frog awareness. It is from http://savethefrogs.com . This year it is April 29.
If you want to do an event with your school or something, you can register it at: save the frogs day page

** Sorry, but I will not be making a post Friday-Sunday because I will be at a latin convention! YAY! XD

Frog Facts

Frogs are very important to the ecosystem. Here is a list of reasons why.


1.) They eat many pests and keep insect numbers down

2.) They are prey to many animals.

3.) They are used in medicines

4.) They are good bioindicators

5.) They are really cool!

From water to land
Rivers,ponds,swamps,rainforests too
On four legs, hop hop hop!
Great creatures(and cute 2!)
Slippery amphibians   

Please Read This

  Dear readers,
I am very sorry that lately, I have not been making many posts. I have been very busy. From now on, I will be making regular posts.

From, Abby