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Invasive frogs in San Francisco pond evade eradication efforts
MIELIKKI ORG, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, May 9, 2004
URL:
sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/05/09/state1838EDT0
078.DTL
(05-09) 15:38 PDT SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --
California biologists are expressing alarm over the latest invasive species to
take up residence in this city: African clawed frogs, which can survive tough
conditions, eat just about anything and tend to breed like crazy.
Even worse, they're kind of cute -- and thus more likely to be whisked away by
children and dumped into other ponds, where they spread even more.
"They are a threat," said Dr. David Wake, an emeritus professor of integrative
biology at UC-Berkeley. "They've been introduced in southern California
and...they change the environment quite profoundly."
Native to the African nation of Kenya, the frogs are able to live under ice, in
the ground, and in bodies of water that are nearly half sal****er. They alter
ecosystems by gobbling up insects, fish, lizards and even birds that manage to
fit into their large, tongueless mouths. They are also able to burrow into the
ground to survive dry conditions and have been known to prey on the state's
endangered red-legged frog.
The African frogs, outlawed in California as pets several years ago, are
typically used in medical and biological research. Biologists theorize that
their residence in Golden Gate Park's Lily Pond and in areas of Southern
California may be due to researchers depositing the frogs in the ponds to save
them from destruction. Pet stores and collectors wary of being slapped with
fines of up to $1,000 may have also have released them into local creeks and
ponds.
Getting rid of the frogs has proved to be a problem for the California
Department of Fish and Game, which has suffering from severe budget cuts in
recent years.
A plan to dry out Lily Pond went awry last July just as a crew was readying
pipes to flush the contents of the pond into the sewer.
"We were all set and ready to go," said Miles Young, a retired patrol
lieutenant with the Department of Fish and Game who said he was confused by the
sudden change. "We would have drained it in three hours. We spent weeks
studying and preparing."
Susan Ellis, the department's invasive species coordinator, said budget
constraints forced her department to divert funds to more threatening species
on California's long list of invasive organisms, including the New Zealand mud
snail and the northern pike that has taken over Lake Davis, near the Sierra
community of Portola.
"We would like to get those frogs out of that pond," Ellis said. "But because
of our current situation with budget cuts and personnel, it just isn't at that
point. Some of the rehabilitation of the ponds has been slowed and this pond is
not on the list."
But some, including Young, say the department is more worried about failure
than budgets, especially in light of the bad publicity the department received
following efforts to eradicate the northern pike at Lake Davis in 1997.
State wildlife officials pumped 50,000 pounds of poison into the lake in an
effort to get rid of the voracious invasive fish, which threatens the lake's
trout population and downstream salmon. The effort caused an uproar among
Portola residents who rely on the lake for their drinking water and for tourist
dollars from vacationers. The poison stayed in the lake for weeks and killed
most of the animal life -- except, for some reason, the northern pike, which
still thrive there today.
Young said he believes the pike had returned to Lake Davis because fishermen
threw them back in, and said the state's bad experience there shouldn't keep it
from going after the African frog.
"We can't say 'we don't want another Portola so let's not do anything,"' Young
said.
The Fish and Game Department's Ellis insists the frog population in Lily Pond
has been contained for now. But some biologists, who say it's harder to find
the frogs in deeper ponds, aren't so sure.
Eric Mills, coordinator for the Oakland-based Action for Animals, said he has
been lobbying state Fish and Game departments about the frogs since last year.
"They spent millions of dollars a few years ago in San Diego trying to get rid
of these frogs," Mills said. "If they get loose in the San Francisco delta, it
will be devastating to get them out."
©2004 Associated Press *
kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

Ka30P wrote:

Invasive frogs in San Francisco pond evade eradication efforts
MIELIKKI ORG, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, May 9, 2004
URL:
sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/05/09/state1838EDT0
078.DTL


After reading that article, are you still trying to catch
your outlaw frog? At first that's what I thought this you
were writing about;-)

--
Bonnie
NJ

Bonnie wrote After reading that article, are you still trying to catch
your outlaw frog?

No, all frog operations are suspended for right now. Unfortunately elder son
still in the hospital, younger still on crutches, frog is almost bigger than
petite daughter and Dad and I are keeping ahead of laundry and food by the skin
of our teeth. I figure the taddies in the pond are safe for the time being and
I'm raising about thirty in a tub on the deck and will transfer them by hand to
the shrubs away from Lady Bullfrog if they go froglet before we can catch her.
kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

Ka30P wrote:

No, all frog operations are suspended for right now. Unfortunately elder son
still in the hospital, younger still on crutches, frog is almost bigger than
petite daughter and Dad and I are keeping ahead of laundry and food by the skin
of our teeth. I figure the taddies in the pond are safe for the time being and
I'm raising about thirty in a tub on the deck and will transfer them by hand to
the shrubs away from Lady Bullfrog if they go froglet before we can catch her.
kathy :-)

Glad to hear you are keeping up with everything!
Don't forget the breathe and laugh occasionally.

--
Bonnie
NJ