There are still frogs in Kentucky?

Compared with even a few decades ago, they seem to be pretty much
eradicated altogether. I don't mean this as a criticism of
frog-gigging, but something sure seems to have all but eliminated
frogs.

I can remember fishing and camping as a kid, and hearing the frogs
roar. The last time I camped along a creek in central KY, the the
complete absence of frog noise was startling. I remember that it was
Memorial Day weekend, and we speculated that perhaps it was still too
early in the year for the appearance of frogs. But their COMPLETE
absence was puzzling.

In article .com,
"CinciGreg" wrote:

There are still frogs in Kentucky?

Compared with even a few decades ago, they seem to be pretty much
eradicated altogether. I don't mean this as a criticism of
frog-gigging, but something sure seems to have all but eliminated
frogs.

I can remember fishing and camping as a kid, and hearing the frogs
roar. The last time I camped along a creek in central KY, the the
complete absence of frog noise was startling. I remember that it was
Memorial Day weekend, and we speculated that perhaps it was still too
early in the year for the appearance of frogs. But their COMPLETE
absence was puzzling.

The sudden, and dramatic, loss of many amphibians is fairly old news
(dates back at least 10 years).


From: http://www.nature.com/nature/links/010405/010405-1.html
"Amphibian populations have suffered widespread declines and extinctions
in recent decades. Although climatic fluctuations, increased UV-B
radiation, and increased prevalence of disease have all been implicated
at particular localities, the importance of global environmental change
remains unclear. New data links global climate change with disease
outbreaks in populations of the western toad, Bufo boreas , a species
that has experienced severe declines in recent years."

From: http://www.amphibiaweb.org/declines/declines.html
"Globally , over 200 amphibian species have experienced recent
population declines, with reports of 32 species extinctions (Blaustein
and Wake 1990, Alford and Richards 1999, Houlahan et al. 2000)."

If you look at the map on the amphibiaweb.org site, you will notice that
the Americas are particularly hard hit. I won't speculate why as, as far
as I know, nobody has yet proven a connection between human activity and
the loss of amphibians. Considering the history of same, however, one
might suspect there is a link.

Rick

Rick wrote:

If you look at the map on the amphibiaweb.org site, you will notice that
the Americas are particularly hard hit. I won't speculate why as, as far
as I know, nobody has yet proven a connection between human activity and
the loss of amphibians. Considering the history of same, however, one
might suspect there is a link.

Well, yeah, if you're a paranoid leftist hippy freak who's too stupid
to understand that that amphibians have been around a LONG time and
that any species fluctuation should be considered normal and expected
rather than a clarion call off doom!

wrote:

Rick wrote:

If you look at the map on the amphibiaweb.org site, you will notice that
the Americas are particularly hard hit. I won't speculate why as, as far
as I know, nobody has yet proven a connection between human activity and
the loss of amphibians. Considering the history of same, however, one
might suspect there is a link.

Well, yeah, if you're a paranoid leftist hippy freak who's too stupid
to understand that that amphibians have been around a LONG time and
that any species fluctuation should be considered normal and expected
rather than a clarion call off doom!

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...pulation+crash
Appear to be a lot of stupid paranoid leftist hippy freaks out there.
Amazing how many of them work in the biological science and ecology
fields. Most of the time, when they use the words "population crash"
they're not talking about normal species fluctuation.

Passenger pigeons were around for a long time, too, now they're gone.

Steve
--
Steve Cramer
Athens, GA

In article ,
Steve Cramer wrote:

fields. Most of the time, when they use the words "population crash"

Another consideration is that when a species which as existed for 10
million + years, and you observe species declines in those populations
which date back to the last 30 years, you might begin to consider why
they are suddenly so unsuccessful.

Humans eradicated many species through simple hunting (dodo, for
example, certain species of deer) and have driven many others to the
brink of extinction by this same method. Only an idiot would deny that
we also have effects on some species simply by being oblivious to their
need for habitat.

Rick