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