OTTAWA CITIZEN (Ontario) 02 July 05 It's not easy being green: Cars, pollution, even swimming pools, make life tough for urban amphibians (Jenny Jackson )
First, it was the witches' brew, then old wives' tales about causing warts. Now it is malformed limbs and a global decimation -- not that anyone cares. Ever see a T-shirt saying "Save the Toads?"
Even a herpetologist explaining the frog songs at Britannia's Mud Lake this week emerged from the trail with the throwaway line: "Really, I prefer birds."
The frogs, toads, turtles, snakes and salamanders of the Ottawa area are not a glamourous lot, but they do have their friends.
Among the foremost is Francis Cook, who inspires awe in fellow naturalists. One author dedicated his book to him; others say "you should really talk to Francis. They don't make them like Francis anymore."
Cook was curator of the reptiles and amphibians division of the Canadian Museum of Nature from 1960 to 1994. He lives outside Bishops Mills with his wife Joyce ("an excellent snake catcher", down a winding lane overarched with trees. Between the boughs, ambling beside the road, a creek glints in the sunlight -- perfect for frogs and toads.
As we settled around the kitchen table of his old stone house, he leafed through dozens of books, and laughed: "I was Mr. Creepy Crawly Canada."
Cook was about nine when he became enraptured with amphibians. "The thing that fascinated me was that not much was known."
Science still knows relatively little. Researchers are fascinated by some species' ability to virtually freeze, yet survive. Others are looking into frogs' and toads' numbing toxic secretions to see if they might be used or synthesized into painkillers.
But the most pressing issue is the dramatic population plunge in amphibians all over the world. Because they are so porous, breathing through their skin, they are much more sensitive to chemicals in their surroundings, making them bellwethers of environmental vigour.
For the past 20 years frogs and toads have been dying in alarming numbers. Globally, 32 per cent of the world's 1,856 species are threatened, compared to about 12 per cent of bird species and 23 per cent of mammal species. At least 34 species have become extinct in the past few years, and another 113 species have not been found in recent years.
More horrifying has been the plague of grotesque malformations, with frogs displaying both male and female genitalia, or developing eyes on their backs or down their throats, or five back legs, or only one.
Ottawa conservation biologist Robert Alvo is a member of Frogwatch, a volunteer monitoring group. He has not noticed a decline nor has he seen any dramatic malformations locally. But many have been documented in Quebec and in 44 states, involving nearly 60 species. In some U.S. populations, up to 60 per cent of amphibians have malformations.
Nobody really knows why. Studies have shown pesticides are to blame. Others point to climate change and harsher sun conditions, or to fungal disease that invaded stressed populations.
Take the common toad, or the American toad, as we have here in Ottawa. Toads are frogs modified for land, and they have been one of the most successful amphibians in cities. They are closer to brown than green, meaning they are better camouflaged. Their "warty" backs can take more sun, and their legs are built more for walking than leaping.
If they get frightened enough, the skin on their back secretes a toxin. People who touch a toad and then their eyes or lips might notice an unpleasant numbness.
Brown's Inlet in the Glebe used to be famous for its toads, especially in breeding season. The toads spend the winter in chambers they dig about a metre below ground, then make their way back to their birthplace in spring. Mike Rankin, a herpetologist, used to be able to catch 500 toads in a few hours in the pond's still waters.
In the 1980s and '90s hundreds of toads could not struggle up concrete curbs as they tried to get from the road to the pond. Neighbours in rubber gloves plucked as many as possible to safety, but hundreds were squashed by cars.
Some people put planks up as ramps, only to see them knocked down. The carnage continued until finally city crews tamped a few shovelfuls of asphalt along the curbs to make permanent toad passageways.
Naturalist Daniel Brunton says pool owners might take a lesson here. A single swimming pool can attract and kill eight to 10 frogs, toads and salamanders in a few hours. They are attracted to the water, jump in, and find themselves scalded by pool chemicals. And there is no escape.
Brunton, who was housesitting a residence with a swimming pool, simply dangled a thick, floating plastic hose over the side of the pool. "It was amazingly effective, with the kill rate dropping from an average of five animals a night to fewer than two animals a night. "
However, at Brown's Inlet the toads have diminished in recent years. Inez Berg, who lives across the street, believes that spring run-off piped into the pond from city streets has damaged the species.
Rankin agreed that road salt is hard on them, and may well be the reason their numbers have fallen. Proving it would be another matter. Nobody recorded what the water was like before the spring run-off was piped into the pond, so it is hard to say how much worse it would be now.
The toad's breeding season is over for this year, so his high trill is absent now from the dusk chorus. On these hot evenings you will hear the late breeders, the mink frog's knock knock, the bullfrog's "wawaron," and the green frog's "gulp," which sounds like a broken banjo string. The spring peeper, western chorus frog and the wood frog mated in early April, then the toads, grey treefrog, pickerel frog and Northern leopard frog.
They sing for females, and they make their territory very clear to other males. If another one invades, they will wrestle, trying to hold each other's head under water in hopes of drowning the rival, something that in fact rarely happens.
Like Kermit said, it's not always easy being green.