Welcome to our blog,
FROGS ARE GREEN!
For over 200 million years, ponds, marshes, grasslands, and rain forests have come alive with the calls of frogs. Yet these remarkable and colorful animals are declining at such a rapid rate that they are being called the Earth’s next dinosaurs. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, a third of the world’s amphibian species are threatened with extinction. To read more, click here!

 

To follow us on Twitter:
@greeninnature

 

Join our cause page on
facebook_100px

 

F-dream-t-shirt
Just in! Our new "A Frog's Dream — Save Our Home" T-shirts printed on a beautiful natural color and the posters are 18" x 24."
Visit the Store>>

 

Teachers:
Calling all Frog Artists!
Susan and I are seeking kids’ frog art—lots of it! We hope to encourage kids and their teachers to learn about and get interested in frogs, toads, and other amphibians. If you’re an elementary school teacher, parent, or educator, please send us jpegs (2mb maximum size) of your students’ or kids’ drawings or paintings of frogs and we will display them in school group galleries on the FROGS ARE GREEN blog. We’d be happy to receive images of any art form—sculpture, drawing, painting, or watercolor.
Read more>>

 

Announcing the winner of our first "Frogs Are Green" photo contest! Congratulations to Jocelyn Hyers, whose winning photograph of a green tree frog was taken in Pierce County, Georgia, USA. To see her photo click here!

 

RB-Frogs-Tee-sm
Check out our Frog T-Shirt on the products page! We're selling baby's Onesies also! Buy one and one for a friend and we'll donate to our favorite charities. UP TO 3 SHIRTS or ONESIES - FREE SHIPPING!

 

Your donation will go toward creating FREE children's educational materials!

 

Do you do fieldwork or amphibian research with a zoo, environmental organization, university, or government agency? If so, please consider writing a guest post for us about your work (@300 words). Email it to us at: info@frogsaregreen.com.

 

4wristbands-FrG-sm
Check out our new Frogs Are Green Wristbands!
Made from 100% recycled materials, these wristbands are a great gift and will show you care about Frogs and our planet!

Cane Toads Invade Sundance!

February 1st, 2010

Susan and I are both eager to see filmmaker Mark Lewis’s Cane Toads: The Conquest, which has received good reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. This film, in 3-D,  is a follow-up to his cult favorite of 25 years ago, Cane Toads: An Unnatural History.

Here’s a description of the film from the website:

Shot against the harsh and beautiful landscape of northern Australia, Cane Toads: The Conquest tracks the unstoppable journey of the toad across the continent. Director Mark Lewis injects his trademark irreverence and humor into the story as he follows a trail of human conflict, bizarre culture and extraordinary close encounters.

Filmed with high-resolution 3D technology, Cane Toads is the first Australian digital 3D feature film.  Custom designed equipment allows viewers to get up close and personal with these curious creatures like never before. The unique viewing experience is like being immersed in the world of the toad.

Cane Toads were introduced to Australia in 1935 to control sugar cane larvae. Unfortunately they didn’t do that—instead this adaptable toad has thrived without natural predators and now numbers in the millions. The toads are poisonous when eaten by other animals, including native species and pets. They’ve caused other problems as well (for example, they eat the insects that other animals, such as skinks, depend on). Clearly, the importation of cane toads into Australia has been a huge ecological disaster.

newstoad_wideweb__470x319,0

Cane Toads: The Conquest isn’t a conventional animal documentary.  According to the film’s website:

[Cane Toads] is a truly poignant environmental cautionary tale on the issue of invasive species and human folly. Some will see this story as a tragedy, some a comedy of errors, and still others a heroic journey across a harsh yet beautiful continent. As the world wrestles with the idea that we have irretrievably altered our own ecosystem, these bulbous creatures may be the ultimate metaphor for the inevitable path upon which we have set ourselves.

For more information, watch Anne Thompson’s interview with Mark Lewis on her blog TOH! Thompson on Hollywood. Susan I and hope a major distributor picks up the film so we can see it in our area!

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Amphibians in films, Frogs in Film, Invasive Species | No Comments »

Yasuni National Park, Ecuador: An Amphibian Eden

January 26th, 2010
Yasuni National Park, Ecuador. Courtesy www. banktrack.org

Yasuni National Park, Ecuador. Courtesy www.banktrack.org

Scientists have recently identified Yasuni National Park in Ecuador as one of the most biologically diverse places in South America, and perhaps on earth. As Shawn McCracken of Texas State University—San Marcos, recently said, “The 150 amphibian species throughout Yasuni is a world record for an area this size. There are more species of frogs and toads within Yasuni than are native to the United States and Canada combined.”

Unfortunately this Eden sits on oil reserves and is threatened by proposed oil development projects. McCracken and other scientists from Ecuador, the United States, and Europe have proposed a moratorium on new oil exploration until the effects of such projects can be explored.

Reading about this, we couldn’t help but think about the movie Avatar and the attempted destruction of the planet Pandora to mine unobtanium. Unfortunately, we humans aren’t as wise as the Na’vi—yet. Let’s hope that Ecuador will preserve this incredible pocket of biodiversity and not be so shortsighted as to destroy parts of it for oil.

Here is more information from Save the Frogs and the Environmental News Service.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Amphibian habitat loss, Deforestation and frogs, Frogs and the Rainforest, Rainforest Frogs, habitat loss | No Comments »

A Field of Nightmares? Atrazine, Corn, and Frogs

January 20th, 2010

I’ve always had a sentimental attachment to cornfields—from the magical cornfield in Field of Dreams to the real cornfield across the road from a house I lived in during college years. My mother was born and raised in Iowa and I’m descended from farmers.

cornfield-medium

But chemicals, in particular Atrazine, used as herbicides on cornfields might be poisoning frogs (and people), and turning fields of dreams into fields of nightmares.  These herbicides run off cornfields into streams and rivers, and leak through the water-treatment process, contaminating groundwater and drinking-water supplies.

Last summer we blogged about the problems of Atrazine. Research by University of California, Berkeley professor  Dr. Tyrone Hayes, for example, has shown the effects this chemical—an endrocrine disruptor—has on frogs. It can cause birth defects and reproductive problems, including such bizarre deformities as male frogs with eggs in their testes. This past week, as reported in the Washington Post, new research at the University of Ottawa found that when exposed to Atrazine fewer tadpoles reached froglet stage. Atrazine appears to affect estrogen in humans as well and has been connected with ferility problems, cancer, and birth defects.

Warning in a Cornfield

Warning in a Cornfield

The EPA, under the Obama administration, has launched a review of the chemical that will continue until fall 2010. It will look closely at Atrazine and other endrocrine disruptors, which might result in tighter restrictions on their use. While this sounds hopeful, Atrazine’s primary manufacturer, Syngenta, has strong ties and influence within the EPA. (Atrazine is banned in Europe, where perhaps industry and government aren’t as closely intertwined as they are in the U.S.).

For more information, please see this PDF,  a report by the Land Stewardship Project and the Pesticide Action Network North America titled The Syngenta Corporation: The Cost to the Land, People, and Democracy.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Chemicals in the Environment, Climate change and frogs, Environmental Health, Learn about Frogs, Living a Frog-Friendly Life | No Comments »

The Froglog: A Frog-Friendly Invention

January 11th, 2010

Last summer we received a wonderful photograph taken by Mary Lascelles for our photo contest of a frog (whom she named Fritz) who hung out on the filter line in her pool sunning himself. Luckily, Fritz never fell in the pool.

fritz-mary-lascelles

Unfortunately many frogs do fall in pools and are poisoned by chlorine, which is absorbed into their bloodstream through their permeable skin. Recently on the Mother Nature Network blog, I read about a new invention, called a froglog, that helps frogs and other small animals escape from pools.

The froglog was created by Rich Mason, a wildlilfe biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who was disturbed that so many frogs and other animals were dying in pools. The froglog is a thick foam tile with angled edges that allow frogs to climb out of the pool. The froglog can also be used in hot tubs, spas, fountains, and backyard ponds.

As Mason writes on his website, due to suburban sprawl, pools are now often built close to the natural habitats of amphibians. He mentions a friend with a pool in Maryland who found over 50 animals trapped in his pool in one night.

Check out this video of frogs and turtles using the froglog escape ramp. And if you have a pool and live in an area with lots of wildlife, definitely consider getting a froglog!

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in How You Can Help, Living a Frog-Friendly Life, People Helping Frogs and Toads | No Comments »

« Older Entries