Across the world people will be donating and running fundraising events and talks to educate people on the plight of these amazing amphibians.We are announcing to the ASA partnership and to the entire scientific community of our organizational name change from SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana to Save Ghana Frogs. This Saturday 27 th of April is Save the Frogs day. Vietnamese Mossy Frog – picture credit – īut in the last 30 years over 200 species of frog have become extinct due to habitat loss, fungal infection, climate change, invasive species, pollution and over harvesting for the pet trade.
#Save the frogs skin#
Compounds in their skin are curing our diseases, their tadpoles filter our drinking water, they form a key part of the food chain in many habitats around the world and… if that wasn’t enough…they eat mosquitoes!!! They’re teaching us about the world in ways we’d never dreamed of. These crawling, hopping, swimming, climbing andĮven flying (yes look it up…ok…it’s more like a glide) critters really are fascinating. If there’s anything we know for sure about frogs it’s that Some are drab and dull while others are bold and acid bright. Some are soft and smooth while others are spikey, warty or even mossy. Some frogs weigh as much as 3kg while others are so small they could sit on the tip of your finger with plenty of wiggle room. Or do they? Does it always happen this way? What about the Poison Arrow frog that after its eggs have hatched scoops up each tadpole and climbs metres up into the forest canopy to place each in its own private bromeliad pool? What about the Surinam Toad (actually a frog) whose babies burst forth from the skin of her back in a scene worthy of a horror movie? Darwin’s Frog even keeps her young in her mouth!
#Save the frogs full#
As the weeks pass their tails shorten, their mottled brown bodies sprout tiny stumps that grow into tiny limbs and finally a full blown froglet clambers blinking into the light….
#Save the frogs free#
They then wriggle free of these gelatinous eggs to spend their early days tootling around their pond home as tadpoles. We all know that common old English frogs start life as a tiny back blob encased in a globule of pearly jelly. But how much do we really know about frogs? Hopping through storybooks and fairy-tales, their long legs and webbed feet are instantly recognisable by children the world over. I’ll never forget the day one ate a wasp that had been buzzing overhead – the flurry of froggy limbs, the lurch forwards and the bright orange eyeballs sinking back into their sockets for one enormous swallow. They jostled each other occasionally and if anyone came stumping across the little bridge to see what I was doing they’d plop down into the water but generally they just were.
The frogs watched placidly from their perch at the base of a clump of water iris – mouths stretched into wide froggy smiles.
I used to spend hours lying on my front staring into the murk at the bottom of our pond straining to catch a glimpse of a newt or a dragonfly larvae. The funny thing is they never really did much. But not me – to me they were just the goofy little green monsters at the end of our garden and I loved them. Squatting damply with their bulbous eyes shining in the gloom I can understand why they give some people the heeby jeebies. Poke about in any garden pond that’s been around for a couple of seasons and you’ll generally find a few. Of all the creatures that lived in my parents’ leafy riot of a garden, frogs were the ones that captured my imagination the most.