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MrRING

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African Frogs Threaten San Francisco Area
By MIELIKKI ORG, Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - California biologists are alarmed over the latest invasive species to take up residence in this city: African clawed frogs, which eat just about anything and tend to breed like crazy. Even worse, they're kind of cute — and thus more likely to be whisked away by children and dumped into other ponds, where they spread even more.

"They are a threat," said Dr. David Wake, an emeritus professor of integrative biology at the University of California-Berkeley. "They change the environment quite profoundly." Native to Kenya, the frogs are able to live under ice, in the ground and in salty water. They alter ecosystems by gobbling up insects, fish, lizards and even birds that fit into their large, tongueless mouths. They also burrow into the ground to survive dry conditions and prey on the state's endangered red-legged frog.

The African frogs, outlawed as pets in California several years ago, are used in medical and biological research. Some theorize that researchers might have released the animals into Golden Gate Park's Lily Pond and parts of Southern California to save the frogs from destruction. Pet stores and collectors wary of being slapped with fines of up to $1,000 also might have released them into local creeks and ponds.

Eric Mills of Oakland-based Action for Animals, which has lobbied the state to fight the spread of invasive species, said the only way to prevent the frogs from spreading is to kill the population in Lily Pond.

"They spent millions of dollars a few years ago in San Diego trying to get rid of these frogs," Mills said. "If they get loose in the San Francisco delta, it will be devastating to get them out."

But getting rid of the frogs has been a problem for the cash-strapped California Department of Fish and Game. A plan to dry out Lily Pond was canceled last summer just as a crew was readying pipes to flush the pond into the sewer, said Susan Ellis, the Department of Fish and Game's invasive species coordinator.

Ellis said the department had to divert funds to species that posed bigger threats — such as the voracious northern pike that has taken over Lake Davis near the Sierra Nevada community of Portola.


Story
 
Fun Fact

I read somewhere or other than a new species is introduced into San Francisco Bay every two weeks on the average. Ballist water from ships around the world is the main source.

Humans are driving a mass extinction simply by carrying around things by accident. Imagine if we tried.

On the plus side, species are getting the opportunity to spread to places they couldn't reach before, so the few that are left are likely to be spread all over the world and when we are gone, will continue to diversify, leaving future creationists and scientists to wonder how the hell they got were they are, and were the hell they came from.

Humans have introduced over 50,000 species to North America, including ourselves. Because of airplanes, species which would have formerly died in transit can hop out of a plane fresher than the meals served in first class, let alone economy.

Remember the frog found in the airplane meal salad?

The Chinese fish that can walk from pond to pond?

The Argentinian ant?

How about the thread on Nazi raccoons and Stalinist Red King Crabs which I started?

And don't blame North Americans for the gray squirrel problem--they are overwhelming the red squirrels in North America as well--may have more to do with humans than with the aggressiveness and size of the beast. (I saw one with markings like a tiny black waist-coat once--shades of Beatrix Potter!)

The Shakespeare Society has a lot to answer for in this respect.

They introduced one of the most successful species of all into North America in Central Park in 1886: the English Sparrow. Common as gulls and pigeons now. Only birds you see for days in the urban core more than starlings or pigeons.

Humans are now doing the job that promiscuous and protean Nature did in Charles H. Fort's work: randomly seeding the whole Earth with new populations of plants and animals.

The world is our mad science laboratory.
 
"Only birds you see for days in the urban core more than starlings or pigeons."

You mean the European Starling?
 
Yep, that's the one. 13 pair were released in NY in the late nineteenth century. When I was young, they got so bad here that one of their roosts could cover and kill 15-20 acres of woods, IIRC, and their droppings would activate/accelerate the spread of the mold or fungus that causes histoplasmosis, a respiratory disease. I don't like 'em.
 
Mr. R.I.N.G. said:
SAN FRANCISCO - California biologists are alarmed over the latest invasive species to take up residence in this city: African clawed frogs

UK readers might be interested to know that these frogs (Xenopus) have also established themselves in the Isle of Wight and in south Wales. They're not very prolific in the UK's climate though- they breed very infrequently.

They've been introduced to loads of other places around the world, too. The main reason for this is that they were used in one of the first pregnancy tests- if a female Xenopus is injected with (an extract of) the urine of a pregnant woman, the frog will lay eggs soon after.
 
Xenopus readily available at fish/aquatic outlets,but as Beany says UK too cold for viable breeding population.There are a few populations of other intrioduced amphibians about though, Marsh/Edible frogs all over Kent/Sussex, Alpine newt, Marbled newt, was Eurpeon Tree frogs on the Isle of Wight (probably died out) and on the IHTM, large tadpole thread, Spadefoot toads in Yorkshire.
 
Grow, my children, grow.


Today, San Francisco, Tomorrow, The world!! MWHAHAHAHAH!!!!








*ahem*
 
Frogs which aren't a menace; I wonder if they'll replace bees? Will kids catch them in jam jars?

The creamy fruit and nectar-rich flowers of the milk fruit tree are irresistible to Xenohyla truncata, a tree frog native to Brazil.

On warm nights, the dusky-colored frogs take to the trees en masse, jostling one another for a chance to nibble the fruit and slurp the nectar. In the process, the frogs become covered in sticky pollen grains—and might inadvertently pollinate the plants, too. It’s the first time a frog—or any amphibian—has been observed pollinating a plant, researchers reported last month in Food Webs.

Scientists long thought only insects and birds served as pollinators, but research has revealed that some reptiles and mammals are more than up to the task. Now, scientists must consider whether amphibians are also capable of getting the job done. It’s likely that the nectar-loving frogs, also known as Izecksohn’s Brazilian tree frogs, are transferring pollen as they move from flower to flower, the authors say. But more research is needed, they add, to confirm that frogs have joined the planet’s pantheon of pollinators.

https://www.science.org/content/art...-be-first-pollinating-amphibian-known-science
 
A spotted frog which is rarely spotted.

An all-female team has braved 50C heat and poisonous snakes to track down a "leopard-print" frog virtually unknown to science and learn how it reproduces.

The Argentinian conservation scientists are fighting to protect the tiny Santa Fe frog, which is under threat as its habitat in one of the world's driest forests, the Dry Chaco, is cut down. They discovered how it hides in caves, emerging only to call for a mate. And for the first time they found tadpoles of the species.

"It's not been an easy journey so far, but we're determined to do what we can to secure the future for this wonderful amphibian," said Isis Ibañez, who leads the Santa Fe frog project, based in Buenos Aires.

The Santa Fe frog (Leptodactylus laticeps) is largely unknown to science despite being discovered more than a century ago. Found only in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, the frog is now rare due to the loss of the tropical dry forests in which it lives.

The researchers set up camera traps to locate the brightly-coloured frogs and study their behaviour. Most frogs attract a mate by calling loudly from a pond, stream or swamp, but this species lives underground. The team found the males emerged at nightfall to advertise their presence, then hopped back down their burrows with interested females.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66001590
 
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