I found out yesterday that Beth and the neighbor kids have been catching frogs and keeping them in a 14 gallon tote out in the yard. They’ve been feeding them bugs. I went and had a look, and saw that the largest of them (a green frog, Rana clamitans) was not the picture of health:
R. clamitans with a diseased foot
Maybe I should call that a gangrene frog. I questioned her and found that they’ve had these frogs incarcerated for about a week. I told her that was not good for the frogs and pointed to this one as a prime example. After I took its portrait (fit more for an amphibian medical journal than for a blog), we took them the the catchment pond where they were captured and set them free.
They had three species in there, or maybe four. R. clamitans cell mates included a couple of American toads (Bufo americanus), two spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer), and perhaps a bullfrog – I couldn’t tell if they were bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) or green frogs, because they were pretty young and hadn’t developed ridges yet.
So it looks like the frogs are making a come back at my pond now that I don’t have neighbors draining it out on me or hiring pest companies to poison my yard. And I’ve told Beth I don’t mind if they catch frogs as long as they don’t keep them incarcerated over night. Catch and release girls!
Jomegat's Weblog 
August 23, 2011 at 12:37 am
It’s good to know that the pond life is recovering! I think frogs are here, at least partly, for kids.
August 23, 2011 at 7:11 am
Yes, I’m very happy that the frogs have returned. I’m also trying to use this as a teaching moment!
August 26, 2011 at 1:11 am
LOL, a woman after my own heart, I have such good memories of frogs, tadpoles, garter snakes and all critters wild from my tomboy-hood. Ah, , so tempting to keep them for well-intentioned husbandry endeavors. I once made a wooden house and tied a bee’s leg to it with thread, so he could “live” there. I think my friend and I stunned him in the freezer first, to facilitate the shackling process before he woke up in his new “mansion”. Hmm, maybe someday Beth will be a veterinarian, or a biologist!
Michelle
August 26, 2011 at 7:12 am
She has talked about becoming a veterinarian-teacher-country singer-president of the United States. So maybe! I don’t think she can pull ALL of those off.
August 26, 2011 at 7:27 am
Looks like a birth defect, glad to hear the frogs are returning and you have your pond back..:-)
August 26, 2011 at 8:29 am
I’m pretty sure it was an infection. The leg looked more like jelly when the frog was in the water. Before I went to work this morning I noticed the incarceration facility sitting in a wagon in the side yard, so I went and checked it out. Yup – green frog kept over night. I freed it. Apparently the talk did not sink in, or else one of the neighbor kids is acting warden.