NEW YORK, June 5 (UPI) -- The African clawed frog, which has been infesting ponds all over the world in recent decades, is one of the 24 species of frogs from 17 countries on display in a new show at the American Museum of Natural History that includes more than 200 live amphibians of the frog genus in re-created habitats.
The aggressive clawed frogs native to sub-Saharan Africa made news recently by infesting a lily pond in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, setting off a debate on how to get rid of them before they eliminate most of the other aquatic life in the pond. These frogs seem to be on the increase worldwide while other frog species are threatened with extinction by adverse environmental conditions.
"Frogs: A Chorus of Colors" tells the story of frogs in a most entertaining (and educational) way in one compact gallery containing a series of large glass vivariums furnished with rock ledges, tree trunks, ponds, waterfalls and plants in which the frog specimens, including a few in their larval tadpole stage, feel right at home. Recorded frog chirps, peeps, grunts and croaks fill the gallery with appropriate sounds.
The display, which can be seen through Oct. 3, also includes a number of interactive stations where visitors can activate specific frog calls, watch frogs leaping on video, absorb a wide range of information about the frog genus, and have their new knowledge about the fascinating critters tested. All of the material reflects the latest research findings on frogs by scientists in the museum's Department of Herpetology.
The department devoted to reptiles and amphibians has 350,000 dead specimens of frogs, some of them acquired more than a century ago and many of them preserved in formaldehyde. Museum of Natural History scientists have discovered 160 frog species during the past century, 10 of them in the last year, including a spectacular red tree frog from the Konawaruk Mountains of Guyana on display.
Frogs would appear to be divided between the spectacular, due to brilliant coloring designed to warn predators against poisons in their skin, and the drab, whose camouflage coloring makes them invisible to predators. South American Indians kill jaguars, monkeys, birds and bats with blow darts dipped in the toxins of several frog species.
Frog toxins, such as the non-addictive analgesic exuded by an Ecuadorian frog that is 200 times more potent than morphine as a painkiller, are being studied for use in human medicine, according to Christopher J. Raxworthy, curator of the museum's herpetology department.
The most beautiful frog on view is the small dart poison frog of Central and South America. It is lapis blue with lemon yellow trim, or vice versa, or it can be variegated blue and yellow. Other beauts are the Golden mantle frog of Madagascar, a tiny saffron-colored species whose males wrestle each other for the favors of females, and the Chinese gliding frog, colored a lovely blue-green, whose webbed toes enable it to "fly" for short distances.
But most frogs are green and brown for sake of survival, and the most successfully camouflaged frog is the large Vietnamese mossy frog that has the appearance of a clump of lichens and is barely visible to museum visitors when clinging to the mossy stones in its vivarium. Finding the Big Mossies, about a half dozen of them, has become the favorite game of children visiting the show.
Frogs have short pointed teeth and eat insects, worms, spiders, snails and the larger ones devour other frogs, rodents and even small birds. As a killer of insects, they are economically valuable to agriculture. In turn, frogs are eaten by a wide variety of predators including man, who fancies them as a delicacy, especially the legs. Americans import 1.25 million pounds of frog's legs a year.
Some 4,000 species of frogs have been found on all the continents except Antarctica. Museum scientists say that in the past 50 years some species have vanished completely, mostly due to human activity in destroying their habitat. Malformed frogs, mysteriously missing legs, eyes and toes, have been found in 44 U.S. states since 1996, possibly the victims of parasites, pollution or ultra-violet radiation.
The largest frog species can measure up to 15 inches long and weigh seven pounds, and the Goliath frog can jump 10 feet. Frog voices, made by pumping air against the vocal chords, fill the night air in many rural parts of the world, and some can be heard a mile away from their source. Most frogs like cool, moist habitats, but some live in deserts and survive extreme heat by burrowing underground.
One of most attractive aspects museum visitors will find about frogs is their large, bulging, hypnotic eyes, so placed atop the head that they have 180 degree vision. They have excellent night vision, can move their eye lenses back and forth, and pull their eyes into the roof of their mouths to help push food down their throats.
And what of the famous American bullfrog, immortalized by Mark Twain in his "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"? Bullfrogs were introduced to the American West in the 1800s as a food source. They have since invaded ponds and waterways and now are considered a threat to native fish, snakes, birds and other frogs. In other words, a pest. Or maybe a prince in disguise?
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