I'd like to spread some awareness regarding amphibian malformation and decline so I'm going to share some pictures of some specimens I've collected in the past. Does anybody find these images disturbing?

__________________
Official hostage of the GFWD
"The truely dangerous people are the ignorant ones."
Founding Member of Logical People Against Arcane Boa Subspecies Classification (LPAABSC):
B c.c 1758, B. c. i. 1803 B. c. o. 1873!
"A BOA CONSTRICTOR IS A Boa constrictor!"

I saw something like that a while ago, where the frog had 16 legs. They said it was due to parasites durning the developmental stag. I felt bad, the poor little guy couldn't swim so they kept him in a net with his head just above water.

Welcome Heather! With that name couldn't be anyone else!
Yes I find them and others I have seen VERY disturbing since these are species that are the first to be affected by changes in their environment. Hopefully mankind will wake up and realize what we are going to end up doing to US before its too late!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Hi Heather... Welcome, welcome. I'm really glad to see that you made it.

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Fran
January 9, 1940 - June 1, 2006 (R.I.P)

Like I told ya, chickie, give me and the kids a time and place and you'll have a whole HERD of people with nets out catching and tagging (do they do that???) frogs for you to study. I know you are concerned with the populations here, and it would be a good way to collect some data to publish for RI. Just let me know.

Yes these images are disturbing. In the areas that you've been collecting- what is the ratio of malformed amphibians to ones that appear healthy?

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Tricia

Anybody want to see more pics of the frogs?

I was surveying during a die-off in 2002. I think it got up to about 25% and there were several factors involved including but not limited to: draught, possible viral infections, fungal infections, secondary bacterial infections, UV-B, heavy metals, and possible teratogens in the water. The frog on the right is probably suffering from all of the above. The frog on the left has been cleared and stained to demonstrate that one of the "arms" never developed. There would at least be a vestige of bone there had the limb been bitten off and besides no frog could survive and heal (with NO scarring) having a whole limb torn fully out of the abdomen like that.

I REALLY REALLY encourage people to get involved and go out and do surveys. ANYBODY can do a survey, weather it be a calling survey, which would be good at this time of year, to asses species diversity in your area or a health survey, which would be better in say June for the northern part of N. America. All you have to do is drive around and write down the frogs you hear calling or take a group out for the day and catch as many frogs as you can and record thier size, species, and any malformations they might have. This is a GREAT activity for kids and families! I did these when I was a kid, it will help kids, even little kids, learn about ecology and the environment and instill in them values regarding environmental stewardship. PLEASE get involved! If you ever collect a malformed frog yourself you will feel something very powerful when you hold that little frog in your hand and see it with your own eyes. Even if you're not a frog person please spread the word because similar things are happening to other herps all around the world.

Here are a couple of links for more info or you can PM me or ask here:

http://www.open.ac.uk/daptf/index.htm

http://frogweb.nbii.gov/narcam/

http://www.mp2-pwrc.usgs.gov/naamp/

For those in Canada:

http://www.cnf.ca/frog/id.html

Here's a map of places where malformation and decline have been reported in the N. America:

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/narcam/reports/reports.htm

__________________
Official hostage of the GFWD
"The truely dangerous people are the ignorant ones."
Founding Member of Logical People Against Arcane Boa Subspecies Classification (LPAABSC):
B c.c 1758, B. c. i. 1803 B. c. o. 1873!
"A BOA CONSTRICTOR IS A Boa constrictor!"

Those Images are disturbing and I never knew how serious all of this was. There have been frogs found with major problems here in kansas and I thought that maybe it was just here or that it was extremely rare but unfortunatly not!

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Love Always,
Audrey

Owned By,

1.0.0 Iguana Iguana -Louie
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0.1.0 Betta-Alphie
0.0.1 Apple snail- Mr. Bubbles
1.1.0 Mutt puppy's- Socks & Meeko
1.0.0 fieance-Brett