HERALD NEWS (Joliet, Illinois) 19 February 08 'Frog lady' shows off creatures (Catherine Ann Velasco)
Romeoville: Dressed in a green shirt covered with frogs, Deb Krohn, a.k.a. Frog Lady, took fourth-graders all around the world via her friends in the world of herpetology.
" 'Ology' is like studies," she said. "It is things that you study. In biology you study living things. Ornithology is a study of birds. There's mammalogy -- that is the study of mammals.
"My favorite ology of all the ologies is herpetology. Herpetology is the study of the two coolest groups of animals in the world -- reptiles and amphibians," she said to the students at Skoff Elementary School in Romeoville.
In the 1800s, scientists thought reptiles and amphibians were similar animals so they were grouped together. "Now, we know they probably shouldn't have been grouped together," she said. However, she is glad they are grouped together so she can teach both of them.
"They are the coolest animals that walked on this Earth or slithered or crawled," she said.
Krohn asked the students to tell her the differences between reptiles and amphibians, and she was wowed by their answers. "Amphibians start from the water first," one boy said.
Amphibians start out as eggs, then they hatch out of the eggs and act like fish with gills and tails, living under water. Then, they grow legs. On a tadpole, the back legs shoot out first, then their lungs and their front legs, she said. The tail is absorbed and used as energy by the frog. Pretty soon, they turn out to the adult amphibian they are destined to be.
Another difference: reptiles have scales and amphibians don't. Instead, they have slimy skin.
Reptiles have teeth, but amphibians do not. However, there is one reptile that doesn't have teeth: the turtle.
"If you got bit by a turtle it could still hurt depending on what type of turtle it was," said Krohn who is a member of the Chicago Herpetological Society.
"My favorite animal in the entire world is frogs. All toads are frogs. Not all frogs are toads," she said before disappearing out in the hallway to get Frank. "Frank is a toad. You have to be totally quiet and he'll talk to you," she said.
The class quickly quieted each other to hear Frank, a Rococo toad from South America, croon like his namesake, Frank Sinatra.
"What would happen if you touched a toad?" she asked. "Would you get warts?"
The class thought maybe. But Krohn said people get warts from other people -- not from toads.
Then she brought out some common pets, such as the crested gecko from New Caledonia and the leopard gecko, which comes from Saudi Arabia. "They have to eat insects. Do they eat dead insects?" she asked.
The students said no.
"It's got to be moving," she said, adding if she threw a dead cricket in their aquarium they won't touch it.
Krohn emphasized that it's important to learn about reptiles and amphibians before purchasing them. The cold-blooded animals need certain temperatures to survive and other special care.
"If you want to get a reptile for a pet -- wonderful! You are not going to the pet store first. You will get on the Internet. You are going to find out what it costs. You are going to find out what it eats. You are going to find out all the requirements it needs," Krohn said.
"My turtle will outlive me. I hope my son someday will like turtles because he is going to get them. I hope that his kids like turtles because they will probably go to his kids," she said. "It is not something to take lightly. ... It's a long commitment."
'Frog lady' shows off creatures