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Night sounds of frogs
Leaping lizards! Frogs have invaded the Scenic City. And the place to find many of them is at the Tennessee Aquarium. And today, Leap Day, seems like the perfect time for them to make their debut.
Whether you think they’re icky or cool, you’ll have many varieties to see with 19 amphibians, including frogs and salamanders, located throughout the River Journey building.
The largest of the species on display is the giant waxy monkey tree frog that climbs like a monkey through the trees. The smallest is the yellow-banded poison dart frog with its bright yellow markings. The most beautiful is the most deadly.
While there are more than 100 known species of poison dart frogs, the blue poison dart frog, a native of South America, is one of the most striking of all. According to Dave Collins, the aquarium’s curator of forests, the frogs use their color to warn predators of their toxicity.
Seeing is one thing, but hearing the different calls of the frogs is ribbeting, er, riveting. The exhibit has interactive displays that allow visitors to hear them at the push of a button. To emphasize the conservation message of saving the world’s amphibians, some of the buttons, when pressed, remain silent, indicating that the species is extinct, Collins said.
Frogs and other amphibians are in a crisis mode because of amphibian chytrid. The disease infects their skin, through which many species breathe and feed, according to information provided by the aquarium.
Discovered just 10 years ago, the disease already has killed dozens of frog species, the news release continues. The disease is unstoppable and untreatable in the wild.
“We’ve said this very pointedly in graphics and with video footage of the last golden toe frogs first discovered in the 1960s in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Costa Rica,” Collins said. “You’d think that would be the safest place on Earth for a little frog. But in the course of three years in the late 1980s, their numbers went from 1,500 one year, to one the next year and none the year after that.”
He said it is believed the rapid decline was due to the chytrid fungus.
“We’ve combined two strong elements in the exhibit,” he said. “The living components, which will be a stunning exhibit for people to look at and realize how amazing the frogs are, while taking home the message that they are in serious trouble. From there, we’re hoping people will go home and go to our Web site, where they’ll find information about what scientists are doing to save the frog population.”
