frogs – CommonPlace Nature

The Poetic Eye: “The Round Year” by Edith Thomas, 1886

Backyard Nature, Birds, Books, Geometry and Nature, Natural History, Night 2 Responses »

Jun 172020

I find the night, like the cup of Comus, “mixed with many murmurs.” First and the nearest at hand, the lively orchestration of the crickets (the later summer adds the fife of a grasshopper and the castanets of the katydid); then, in the distance, the regular, sonorous, or snoring antiphonies of the frogs at different points along the winding course of the creek. It would not surprise me to learn that these night musicians are systematically governed by the baton and metronome, so well do they keep time in the perplexing fugue movement which they are performing.

THANK GOODNESS FOR WIKIPEDIA, OR ELSE EDITH THOMAS WOULD HAVE LOST ME ON HER VERY FIRST LINE. Comus, it turns out, was the Greek god of festivities and revels. A god of excess, he represents anarchy and chaos. He was cup-bearer for Dionysus, Greek god of wine and fertility, so it is fairly easy to guess what Comus’ cup contained. Knowing this adds a contextual richness to Thomas’ imagery; the sense of chaos and wildness is juxtaposed with the “orchestration” of the “night musicians”. I glimpse a poet at work here.

EDITH THOMAS WAS FIRST AND FOREMOST A POET, FAMOUS IN HER DAY AND COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN NOW. Her poetry is tightly constructed, flowery, and ornate. Fortunately for her, and we in the 21st century, she also wrote a single book of nature essays, “The Round Year”, published in 1886. Written shortly after Thomas moved from her native northern Ohio to New York City (where she remained the rest of her life), the book is infused with a bittersweet longing for her home place. (“Who knows whether soul or body pines more for the familiar environment?” she asks in the book’s first essay. “Have wood, field, rock, and stream vested in us something of theirs? Or have we parted our spirit among them, that separation touches us so sorely?”) The title of her book comes from a poem by Emerson with these lines, “Cleave to thine acre; the round year / will fetch all fruits and virtues here.” In this, my third book journey, the pendulum has swung a full arc, from a scientist who seasoned her careful observations with a few poetic passages (Mary Treat) to a poetic rambler with a keen eye for birds and trees (Bradford Torrey) to a dedicated lifelong poet, well versed in literature and Greco-Roman mythology.

IT IS EASY SOMETIMES TO DROWN IN THOMAS’ LITERARY ALLUSIONS, WONDERING AT THE POINT OF IT ALL. There are certainly obstacles to accessing her work. By this, I mean not only the mythological thickets abounding in her prose but also her poetic flights of fancy that sometimes left me wondering if it all might be condensed to a pithy sentence or two instead. It is easy to write her off as lost in raptures of poetic fancy and musings of obscure myth, disconnected from nature. And then the minute I decide that, I find a passage that convinces me that she is, in fact, a perceptive observer of the natural world:

A strange servitude is this of the oak to the cynips, or gall-fly, in thus contributing of his substance to the housing and nourishment of his enemy’s offspring. The mischievous sylph selects sometimes the vein of a leaf, sometimes a stem, which she stings, depositing a minute egg in the wounded tissues. As soon, at least, as the egg hatches, the gall begins to form about the larva, simulating a fruity thriftiness, remaining green through the summer, but assuming at length the russet of autumn. The innocent acorn nature puts to bed as early as possible, that it may make a healthy, wealthy, and wise beginning on a spring morning; but the cradle that holds the gall-fly’s child she carelessly rocks above ground all winter.

THERE IS SCIENTIFIC ACCURACY HERE, THOUGH CLOTHED IN POETIC TRAPPINGS. Replace the sylph — an imaginary aerial spirit — with a wasp, and you have a fairly robust description of the formation of an oak gall. And sometimes Thomas’ poetic insights can even shift from being an obstacle to understanding to offering the reader a path toward an alternative way of encountering the world, a reminder that a successful scientist needs imagination and wonder, too. Consider this image:

Would you for a while shut out the earth and fill your eye with the heavens, lie down, some summer day, on the great mother’s lap., with a soft grass pillow under your head; then look around and above you, and see how slight, apparently, is your terrestrial environment, how foreshortened has become the foreground — only a few nodding bents of blossomed grass, a spray of clover with a bumble-bee probing for honey, and in the distance, perhaps the billowy outline of the diminished woods. What else you see is the blue of heaven illimitably stretched above and beyond you. You seem to by lying not so much on the surface of earth as at the bottom of the sky.

Consider, too, this lovely blending of mathematics and flowing water:

In cooler and deeper retirement, on languid summer afternoons, this flowing philosopher sometimes geometrizes. It is always of circles — circles intersecting, tangent, or inclusive. A fish darting to the surface affords the central starting-point of a circle whose radius and circumference are incalculable, since the eye fails to detect where it fades into nothingness. Multiplied intersections there may be, but without one curve marring the smooth expansion of another. There are hints of infinity to be gathered from this transient water-ring, as well as from the orb of the horizon at sea.

DESPITE THEIR DIFFERENCES IN WRITTEN VOICE, TREAT AND THOMAS SHARED MUCH COMMON GROUND. For instance, just as Treat studied nature in the field (the backyard or the further woods), so Thomas spoke strongly of the need to engage with living nature, instead of collecting dead specimens. On the very first page of “The Round Year”, for instance, she addressed the reader thus:

You come, eager and aggressive, on your specialist’s errand, whatever it may be — botany, ornithology, or other; you may take hence, perforce, a large number and variety of specimens, press the flower, embalm the bird; but a “dry garden” and a case of still-life are poor showings for the true natural history of flower or bird.

ANOTHER COMMON ELEMENT IS THAT BOTH WRITERS ENCOUNTERED A KINGFISHER AND DESCRIBED IT TO THE READER. A comparison of the two accounts provides further insight into their different approaches to observing birds. First, Mary Treat:

The belted kingfisher (Ceryle alycyon) is another familiar bird that frequents the grounds. His name indicates his occupation, and a very successful fisher he is. His fishing-post is on the railing that runs along the wharf. The wharf extends from the grounds about two hundred and fifty feet into the river. Whether he remains at this post the entire year I do not know; we find him here upon our arrival, and leave him here when we depart for the North. I am inclined to think that his permanent residence; at all events, he objects to being disturbed, as if he had been sole manager too long to yield the ground without a loud protest. If more than one person geos upon the wharf, he leaves with a clang and clatter which sound like a watchman’s rattle. and usually flies to the terrace, and alights upon a small tree bending over the water, where he can overlook and watch proceedings. But he does not seem to be afraid of one person alone; if I go upon the wharf unaccompanied, he flits along before me, alighting upon the railing, often not more than fifteen or twenty feet distant, and faces about as if to intimidate me. Seeing this I quietly drop upon a seat; for really, with his rumpled crest and fierce-looking black eyes, he looks rather formidable, being a foot or more in length. Seeming to be satisfied that I am under subjection, he goes on with his fishing, in which he is very expert. Motionless he eyes the finny tribes beneath him until one of their number comes within his range to suit his taste, when he dives under the water and brings it up; and now beating it upon the railing until it is quite limp, he swallows it. Small fish-scales are scattered along the entire length of the railing, where he has dressed his fish preparatory to taking his meals.

And now a very different account of a kingfisher (likely a different species, one found along Lake Erie in Ohio) from the pen of Edith Thomas:

There were fish taken under my observation, though not by line or net. I did not fish, yet I felt warranted in sharing the triumphs of the sport when, for the space of ten minutes or more, I had maintained most cautious silence, while that accomplished angler, the kingfisher, perches on a stately elm branch over the water, was patiently waiting the chance of an eligible haul. I had, meanwhile, a good opportunity for observing this to me wholly wild and unrelated adventurous bird. Its great head and mobile crest, like a helmet of feathers, its dark blue glossy coat and white neck-cloth, make it a sufficiently striking individual anywhere. No wonder the kingfisher is specially honored by poetic legend. I must admit that whenever I chanced to see this bird about the stream it was faultless, halcyon weather.

IT IS AMAZING TO THINK THAT BOTH AUTHORS ARE ENCOUNTERING THE SAME BIRD. I have to confess that Treat’s kingfisher strikes me as far more believable than Thomas’s. Perhaps that is in part because Treat sought to interact with the kingfisher, while Thomas instead watched it quietly from a distance. Treat’s kingfisher emerges as a unique character, while Thomas’s is inextricably part of a semi-mythical landscape, with one foot on an elm branch and the other lost in the mists of “poetic legend”.

AS A POSTSCRIPT, A FEW WORDS ABOUT MY PARTICULAR VOLUME. I managed to locate an 1886 copy, the first (and, I suspect, only) edition. It is an austere volume, bound in army gray without ornamentation apart from the title and author in gold on the spine. It was once Number 2973 at Belding Memorial Library but was stamped Discard at some point. Curious about where my book had been, I tracked down the library. There are two Belding Libraries. There is one in Michigan, but I do not think that is the correct one, since that is technically the Alvah N. Belding Library (in Belding, Michigan). More likely, this book was once held by the Belding Memorial Library in Ashfield, Massachusetts, pictured below.

The Frog Patrol (Sunday at the Archives #12)

Atlanta Nature Examiner Articles, Backyard Nature, Natural History No Responses »

Mar 162014

Spring peeper calling to attract a mate. Spring peepers produce their calls using vocal chords just like people do. They also have throat sacs that they can inflate, which act as resonance chambers to amplify the sound of their calls. Photograph by Valerie Hayes.

It is half an hour after sunset in early spring in Georgia, and the grass is still wet from a downpour earlier in the day. My ears are filled with the shrill calls of spring peepers, hiding in the bushes near the invisible pond, calling out plaintively to attract mates. My wife has her clipboard at the ready, holding a red flashlight so that she can see the page in front of her. We are pulled off to the side of the road, just beyond the entrance to a local Baptist children’s home. A light breeze blows out of the west, and the stars shine brightly in the moonless sky. I listen for other voices among the spring peepers, mostly to confirm my wife’s own observations. Officially, she is the frog monitor, and, I tell friends, I drive the getaway car – plus I have the job of counting cars while my wife documents frog calls. The more cars passing over her five minutes of work, the more difficult it is to get an accurate tally of how many frogs are present, and what kinds. And sometimes, if the pond is close to the road, a passing car or truck will leave a pond full of raucous frogs silent for a time afterward. I stand on the pavement beside the car, debating whether to trudge into the tall, wet, tick-infested grass to where my wife stands. While I consider the pros and cons, a car pulls up beside me. A policeman looks me over, asking if I need any help. “No thank you,” I explain. “I’m fine. My wife and I are just listening for frogs, doing a research project for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.” I figure no policeman will ever question that story, because it is too odd to make up. “Oh,” he replies. “OK. Goodnight, then.” His car speeds off into the darkness. It is just another night on the Frog Patrol. And this is only the first stop of ten for the evening. Nine to go.

Three nights each year – once in early spring, once again in late spring, and finally in early summer – my wife and I drive a regular beat of perhaps twenty-five miles, stopping at ponds, stream crossings, and roadside wetlands, listening for the calls of frogs. Our frog monitoring route starts just a few miles from home, in Palmetto, Georgia, and ends many miles south, somewhere in the rural hinterlands outside the crossroads community of Sargent. We have been working as volunteers for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, participant in the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program, for six or seven years now. We do it because we are really worried about the future of frogs – in Georgia, across the United States, and around the world. Frog populations have been in decline around the world, for a lot of reasons, from habitat destruction to water pollution from herbicides and pesticides, and global warming to the chytrid fungus (a disease that has wiped out frogs in the tropical Americas and western US). In many cases, more than one problem, or stressor, is involved. Frogs might get stressed due to unseasonably warm or dry conditions, and that might make them more susceptible to water contamination like the herbicide atrazine. A quick look at the numbers: there are 5,645 known frog species around the world, of which 1,656 are considered vulnerable, endangered, or worse, and another 1,400 are so little-known that scientists aren’t sure of their endangerment status. Georgia is home to 30 different species of frogs and toads, making it the second most diverse state for frogs in the country, after Texas.

A few stops later, my wife and I stand on a highway bridge across a swamp. Here, the spring peepers seem to be absent, replaced by the occasional “jug-a-rum” call of a bullfrog, the loose banjo twang of a green frog, and sounds like metallic marbles being banged against each other, coming from the northern cricket frog. In the distance, dogs bark, and I think I hear a whippoorwill calling. Are those yips coming from a coyote pack? Meanwhile, just off the road along the water’s edge, I hear a snuffling and rustling. It is probably an armadillo – maybe even a mother with babies. Somewhere through the trees, a great horned owl calls – “Who cooks for you?” It is a loud and busy night for Georiga wildlife. Fortunately, this road gets few cars at this hour – mostly pickups that race by us, high beams compelling us to close our eyes. This is one of our wildest stops, and one of my favorites, too. I can’t see house lights anywhere. Now that the quarter moon has risen, I can just make out the silhouettes of trees, and the sparkle of moonlight off the water.

“Why bother with frogs?” one might ask. After all, they don’t have the charisma of bald eagles, grizzly bears, or wolves. Unless you visit a pond, or walk a woodland trail soon after a rain, you may not see frogs very often. They are mostly active at night, because that is when it is more difficult for them to be seen, by both their predators (like most snakes) and their prey (typically insects). Frogs also need to keep their skin moist, and evaporation is much lower at night than during the daytime. Given that we rarely even notice them, are they really that important? It turns out that keeping a healthy and diverse frog population may be extremely important for maintaining vibrant ecosystems. Frogs play vital roles in food webs, both as predators and as prey. They control many insect pests, like mosquitoes. They are celebrated in many cultures, in folk tales and television programs (Kermit the Frog, anyone?). They are sometimes beautiful and always fascinating. Scientists also have found them to be useful indicators of the health of an ecosystem as a whole. Asbioindicators, they tell us about the conditions of our environment. When their numbers decline, there is cause for concern that their habitat has been compromised – perhaps by development in the area, or chemicals in the water. Rachel Carson, the renowned author of Silent Spring, imagined a world without the calls of birds, a world in which toxic pesticides like DDT had wiped out songbird populations. I monitor frogs because I am concerned about another silent spring – a season without frog calls in it.

It is getting late – well past eleven now, and two stops still to go. If the earlier stop was my favorite one for the night, this one is easily my least favorite. Our car sits at the end of a well-lit driveway, in front of an elaborate wrought-iron gate, beside a call box to notify the residents (or possibly their servants) of one’s arrival. I suspect there are hidden cameras installed somewhere, watching us. Lights shine on the brick walls that flank that gate on either side and illuminate the name plate atop the closed gate. Somewhere down the driveway, beside the manicured lawn and in front of the mansion, a pond lies silent. Each year, I wonder anew what this particular stop is for. Yes, there is water there, but never any frogs. My wife and I both suspect that the reason is because of all the lawn chemicals applied to the grass leading up to the water’s edge. Or maybe the homeowners find frog calls annoying and have poisoned the water to kill them all. Stopping here, in the face of such opulence and disregard for wildlife, it is difficult not to feel discouraged. I keep myself occupied by watching for passing vehicles. I don’t even bother getting out of the car.

I live for the other nine stops, the ones where frogs are still present. Every year my wife and I return, and every year we are greeted by a frog chorus – in some cases during all three frog runs, in other cases just on one or two of them. The blend of voices changes year to year and outing to outing. Some frogs – like spring peepers – are active early in the spring, while other ones, such as green tree frogs, start calling later in the spring or even early in the summer. Last year was a severe drought in Georgia, so the calls were fewer and more muted. This year has been much wetter so far, and I have been hearing some northern cricket frogs calling even during some of my daytime walks. I sat sipping coffee in a local market the other day, and was certain I heard the harsh quick trill of a Cope’s gray tree frog coming from the branches of a tree across the street. Over the years of the Frog Patrol, their voices have grown more and more familiar, nowadays, I am more likely to be able to identify correctly a frog’s call than one made by a songbird.

Stop ten at last. Bleary-eyed, I take a last swig of unsweetened peach iced tea (room temperature by now) from my stainless steel water bottle, waiting for the requisite five minutes of frog monitoring to end. By this point in the night, each minute seems to last half an hour. It is after midnight, and the spring peepers’ shrill calls drone on and on, like an all-night frat party. I have come full circle – this early in the season, spring peepers are the only tenants of this roadside pond, though green tree frogs and Cope’s gray tree frogs will likely arrive by early summer. And we will be back to listen for them.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer frog monitor, there are two national programs that you should consider checking out. The one covered in this article is the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program; you can learn about it at http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/naamp/ Another one is Frogwatch USA, administered by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums; information about this program may be found at http://www.aza.org/frogwatch/ If you are concerned about the fate of the world’s frogs, visit www.savethefrogs.com to learn more about what you can do to help. If you would like to read more about frogs, a great book is Frogs: The Animal Answer Guide, by Mike Dorcas and Whit Gibbons, available here and at other online booksellers and neighborhood bookstores. And if you would like to listen to the calls of Georgia’s frogs and toads, click here to access MP3 audio files.

This article was originally published on May 25, 2013.

On Keeping Frogs (Sunday at the Archives #5)

Atlanta Nature Examiner Articles, Natural History 2 Responses »

Jan 262014

Author with Couch’s spadefoot toad

My name is Clifford Blizard, and I keep frogs. There. I’ve said it. I have terrariums set up all around my home office, full of different species of frogs. A new, large terrarium awaits setup in the living room; once it is ready to house its intended occupants, I will move it into the office as well, after rearranging several bookshelves in order to have necessary space. I used to think that my ideal office would be lined with wall-to-wall books; lately, I have decided that wall-to-wall frogs would be even better yet.

My wife and I love animals. We have many housecats and several small dogs, plus turtles, salamanders, and a bearded dragon. I enjoy all of our other-than-human companions. But I have a particular fondness for frogs. Maybe it is their confident, sometimes even smiling facial expressions, or possibly their various vibrant colors (particularly the poison dart frogs), or perhaps their placid temperaments. I enjoy the sound of frogs calling, too, though just our White’s tree frogs have has deigned to do so thus far, and only at certain stimuli – most notably, the opening theme to Doctor Who. For whatever reason or reasons, I have become quite enamored of frogs. In this article, I would like to share a bit of that passion with my readers, offering some guidance (and encouragement) to others who might consider keeping frogs in their homes.

The first thing to know about frogs is that they are highly varied in appearance, behavior, locomotion, and food and habitat needs. Some frogs are strictly aquatic, while others spend most of their lives buried underground, only emerging after a heavy rain. Some of the larger frog species are solitary and spend most of their lives motionless, waiting for hapless prey items (such as crickets or even mice) to wander by. Others are social, living in groups of half a dozen or more and ranging freely along a forest floor or clambering among the trees. For this reason, it is very important to choose a particular frog species and research its needs thoroughly before buying one or more of them for your home. In this article, I will offer a brief overview of some of the frogs that I have adopted. I am a relative beginner to frog care myself (I have had frogs in my home for less than a year), so the ones I will recommend are all “beginner” species – ones that do not pose major challenges to maintain. After the overview, I will close with recommendations on how to obtain healthy frogs for the home in an ecologically responsible way.

White’s tree frog (also known as Dumpy tree frog)

White’s tree frogs (Litoria caerulia, also known as “Dumpy” tree frogs) are an ideal “first frog” for the home. Native to Australia and Indonesia, these solid, placid, mild-mannered frogs average four inches in length, with females occasionally growing to five. Although they are tree frogs (as evident from the broad pads on their forefeet), they tend to be fairly inactive when not hunting. Active (well, active by White’s tree frog standards, anyway) at night, they spend their days curled up in a hollow log or perched on a tree branch. As you can see from the photograph above, they don’t seem to mind being handled, and they are fairly hardy. Adopting one is a serious commitment, though; White’s tree frogs have been known to live for up to 21 years in captivity. Because they are fairly large frogs, they need a lot of room. Two or three frogs require at least a twenty-gallon glass terrarium. The base of the enclosure should be lined with coconut coir fiber or a similar substrate, and the terrarium should include a number of plants (live or artificial) and branches or sections of bamboo for climbing and perching. A water dish several inches in diameter and a few inches deep is needed. Like most all of my frogs, the White’s tree frogs feed on live crickets.

Amazon milk frog

While White’s tree frogs are fairly common in pet stores, Amazon milk frogs (Trachycephalus resinifictrix) are just now becoming popular with hobbyists. It is easy to see why. Native to the lowland tropics of South America, these highly attractive black, white, and gray frogs are charming, with facial expressions that seem almost puppy-like. Like White’s tree frogs, they grow to four inches in size; they can live in captivity for ten years or more, feeding contentedly on crickets. Their name comes from a white sticky secretion that they excrete when stressed. Based upon my experience caring for them (and holding them) without this happening, they seem to stress much less easily than I do. Milk frogs enjoy opportunities to swim, so a large water bowl should be included in their enclosures. They also appreciate highly humid environments, so misting them once or twice a day with a water bottle is also a good idea.

Red-eyed tree frog

One more charming tree frog that the dedicated beginner might consider is the red-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas). This arboreal frog is native to Costa Rica and is decidedly nocturnal in temperament. Red-eyes will spend their days snoozing away, curled up on a leaf or clinging to the glass of terrarium. At nightfall, they languidly open their eyes, yawn a few times, and slowly stretch out their limbs, Somehow, although they tend to move with kabuki-like slowness, they still manage to catch plenty of crickets. Red-eyed tree frogs have lanky bodies, making them a bit more fragile than the solid (flabby, even) White’s tree frogs. Like the milk frogs, they require high humidity conditions. Some care sheets discourage beginners from buying these frogs, because they tend to be more expensive than other frogs and should be handled less often because of their more delicate bodies. I have found, however, that they require no more care than the milk frogs do. To fully appreciate them, I recommend getting a red flashlight or bulb, so that you can view their nighttime antics as they roam their enclosure and hunt for prey. Because they spend so little time on the ground, red-eyes do better in an upright glass terrarium than a horizontal one. That way, they can have plenty of space for climbing on branches, lengths of bamboo, and plant leaves.

Poison dart frog (Dendrobates tinctorius)

Poison dart frog (Dendrobates tincturious “Yellowback”)

Another option for the beginning frog aficionado is one of the various kinds of poison dart frogs. Unlike tree frogs, poison dart frogs are relatively poor climbers, spending much of their time on or near the ground in their native habitats of the South American tropics. They are much smaller than the previous frogs I have discussed, rarely reaching two inches in length and many topping out at an inch or even less. Most species are highly colored, such as the Dendrobates tincturious “Yellowback”. Their colors (which range from vibrant yellows and oranges to metallic shades of turquoise and blue) warn would-be predators in the wild that their skin contains a potent toxin. Indeed, several species of poison dart frogs were actually used by South American Indians as a source of poison for blow-darts for hunting (hence their collective name). Fortunately, the frogs gradually lose their toxicity in captivity; however, it is still essential to handle them as little as possible, and only while wearing latex gloves. Another challenge to raising poison dart frogs is feeding them. Because they are so small, they favor wingless fruit flies over crickets. While crickets can be ordered live online with ease, the best way to have fruit flies on hand is to buy a fruit fly culturing kit and raise your own. So those seeking to care for poison dart frogs should plan to care for their prey as well. However, the rewards of adding poison dart frogs to the home are many. These frogs are like tiny hopping jewels, with rich colors unlike practically any other animals on Earth. They are enthusiastic feeders, snatching up vast numbers of fruit flies with their tongues. They are also quite intelligent, recognizing when their caretaker is approaching to feed them, and moving quickly into position near the front of the terrarium. There are also dozens of choices on the market, with natural color morphs (varieties) of many different species currently available. Keeping poison dart frogs can be an expensive hobby, though; individual froglets range from $35 to $75 or more each. And who can stop at just one?

Assuming that this article has convinced you to consider adding one or more frogs to your home, how does one go about doing so? One thing that makes frog keeping both exciting and a bit difficult is that frogs are much less commonly kept as pets than many other “herps” (reptiles and amphibians), such as geckos and snakes. Only a few frogs can be found in most pet shops, and I have yet to encounter any of the ones I talked about in this article in a “big box” pet store. Occasionally, a frog will appear for sale on Craigslist; in my experience, buying a frog from a former keeper can be a risky proposition, though. One advantage with this approach is that the frog or frogs will often come with a prepared terrarium, making initial setup much easier and less costly. However, many frog owners do not do their homework on the needs of the particular frog that they are caring for, and the result is an animal that may already be stressed or ill by an inferior environment. Therefore, the best route by far for the beginning frog keeper is to purchase frogs (usually sold as juvenile froglets, one or two months beyond the tadpole stage) from a reputable dealer, either one at a reptile show such as Repticon, or else one available online. For about $40 in shipping, a group of froglets can be sent overnight mail and will arrive ready to occupy a new terrarium and start feeding right away.

One very important consideration when purchasing frogs is to determine whether the animals for sale are wild-caught or captive-bred. I strongly urge you to avoid wild-caught frogs. These frogs were taken out of their native environment, which (given all the other pressures frogs face, from habitat loss to global warming) could threaten popular species with extinction. Wild-caught frogs often have parasites that those born and raised in captivity do not. One superb source of 100% captive-bred frogs is Josh’s Frogs. I have ordered three times from this company, and cannot recommend them enough. Josh’s Frogs is dedicated to protecting wild frogs by supplying buyers with healthy captive-bred ones instead.

If you are interested in adding frogs to your home, I encourage you to start with reading about possible frog species of interest, and what care they require. Josh’s Frogs has an extensive collection of “how to” guides, available here. An excellent introduction to keeping frogs and toads is provided by Frogs and Toads (Complete Herp Care), available at Amazon and other online booksellers and neighborhood bookstores.

This article was originally published on July 8, 2013. Photographs copyright Valerie Hayes.