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I couldn't believe
my ears. Three thousand frogs were just a drop
in the bucket. She told be a 20-year story about frogs and their relatives disappearing
faster than bear claws at a Policemen's Ball. In Costa Rica, her cousins the golden toads
have been missing since 1990. The place was crawling with the bright yellow-orange hoppers
as recently as 1987. Another one of her relatives, a peculiar rascal called the gastric
brooding frog, which raises its children in the parents' stomachs, was only discovered in
1973 and by 1981 it was already gone. Her sad story went on and on. Western toads and
red-legged frogs in Oregon--going. Common toads in England and tomato
frogs in Madagascar--going. Chorus frogs in Michigan and Maryland and
elsewhere--gone. From every continent where frogs are found you hear
stories. Stories about a "silent spring" where the noisy chorus
of peeping springtime frogs has been quieted. She was scared. Real scared. |
| Frogs and the rest
of us I didn't want to kick the girl when she was down but I just couldn't help asking one tough question.
"Maybe," she said, "but if we wait too long to act, it could be too late. Frogs like me are very important to the environment." |
| "No kidding?" I said. "How?" I should have realized I was in for another big list. In some habitats there are more frogs than any other vertebrate (she explained to me that a vertebrate was an animal with a backbone). Frogs and their relatives are important carnivores and eat more insects than birds. She also said they were good bio-indicators. That's like being the canary in the coal mine. If there is something wrong with the frogs then there is probably something wrong with the environment. When I asked her what made them such good indicators, she rattled off this long list--good thing I wrote it down. |  |
| So now I ask her the questions I have to ask all my clients. "Who were they last seen with?" "Do they know not to talk to strangers?" "Is there anyone who'd want to hurt you or your kids?" I'm tryin' to get a list of leads on the suspects. . . |
"Don't
take this the wrong way," I started, "but can't frog and amphibian populations
change wildly from year to year? Couldn't this just be a natural downswing?"