We are running out of frogs

I have been a frog friend for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid in Fresno I found one that had been under a box under my bed. It was desiccated, a poor shriveled bony wreck, but still alive. I picked it up gently and put it in the bathroom sink with a bit of water, hoping it would revive. Mom discovered it and shrieked “There’s a frog in the sink!” I explained that it might revive if it were left there long enough. That was not to happen; the frog died. Not Mom’s fault, you see, but in those days there were plenty of frogs.

Fast-forward to 2010. Things are different now. There’s a fungus that kills frogs. A different fungus is doing the same to bats, killing them by the hundreds of millions. Just a few years ago I was entertained by the sounds of hundreds, maybe thousands of small frogs around where I live. But that has changed, and changed drastically. GreenFrog is now the sole inhabitant of our wine barrel fountain. Not too long ago the same fountain held at least a dozen frogs. He croaks every night to attract a mate so they can produce some viable eggs and tadpoles and finally new frogs to continue their line. His croaks are answered by a few frogs down in the creek, 200 feet (60 meters) distant. It is unlikely they will ever meet.

Oh well, so what if we have fewer frogs and fewer bats—they’re both attractiveness-impaired in most people’s opinions. But they both could be the canaries in the coal mine, telling us that we have some difficult times ahead regarding the habitability of our planet. Bats are responsible for eating gazillions of flying insects. Frogs do their part too. Without them, what happens to our food supplies? More pesticides? Human babies are now being born laden with artificial chemistry in their bodies, poisons from the food we eat from chemically-protected farms. Are we destined to suffer the fate of frogs and bats?

This article in the Fresno Bee concerns what is being discovered in nearby Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks. Fast-spreading pathogens aren’t limited to frogs and bats, so the article includes a warning for us. Worth a read.

Photo: Adam Backlin / U.S. Geological Survey