Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Frog Gone?

Lots of amphibians ending up as roadkill, says research

Posted at 11:40 AM on 21 Apr 2008

Need a new reason to hate cars? You're in luck! Death by vehicle could be a major contributing factor in declining numbers of amphibians, according to new research published in the journal Herpetological Conservation and Biology. (Hee hee, they said "herpetological.") Intrepid road-kill researchers from Purdue University spent 17 months schlepping up 10,500 animals flattened on Indiana highways, and ID'd some 95 percent of the wildlife as frogs and other amphibians. "[Many] were females bearing eggs on an annual trip to breeding ground where they often lay 500 to 1,000 eggs," says coauthor Andrew DeWoody. "This could make a big difference for the population." And the actual total of obliterated amphibians could be up to five times higher, say researchers, as most of the roadkill was unidentifiable due to being decayed, moldy, half-eaten, or just too squashed. Sorry, were you eating?

source: Los Angeles Times

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Comments: (5 comments)

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BioD territory!

I guess this is not so surprising, in Indiana.

But presumably roads and vehicles have been a fact of life for wildlife in most of the US for some decades now. Roadkill should not suddenly appear as a new significant pressure on amphibians, whose numbers are well known to be declining, but that is a relatively recent phenomenon.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 11:57 AM on 21 Apr 2008

Roadkill Can Be Signficant

In the hills behind Berkeley, CA, the East Bay Regional Parks close a road every winter due to newt migration. See this article from the Oakland Tribune:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20031104/ ...

by Wolverine at 3:02 PM on 21 Apr 2008

Roads are ribbons of death for reptiles

and amphibians. I have little doubt that they are playing a major role in the demise of many species.

The last time I was in Indiana I drove my rental car back to my uncle's abandoned farm. I ran right over a six foot long snake. I felt terrible. What kind of luck was that?

I was hoping there would still be box turtles there. Just before I left, one wandered across the path I was on. It was like seeing an old friend. They live a long time and this one had probably been around when I was a child. It made up somewhat for the snake incident.

I remember how the box turtles would show up all over the roads whenever it rained. I also remember when the White river still flooded. It would drive the reptiles out of the river valley and onto the roads where they were killed by the thousands by passing cars.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 5:13 PM on 21 Apr 2008

That was a funny article Wolverine

"Sure enough, the rainy season starts, and lewd newts everywhere strut on over to a favorite pond, slip into something more slimy, put on some Barry White and canoodle til the park rangers go home.

Not a problem for most newts. A big problem for newts in Tilden Park in the Berkeley hills because they have to cross a road -- and not just to get to the other side, if you know what we mean, and we think you do."

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 5:19 PM on 21 Apr 2008

Those guys on the East Bay

sure are clever. But the brilliant Angela Hill reached too far, for the sake of a pun, when she wrote, "No newts are good newts." Obviously, she meant just the opposite. To quote Molly Bloom in the last chapter of "Ulysses," in another moment of Spring-time passion, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, oh yes!": Newts are good! The more the merrier!

Of course I do not mean to minimize the significance of roads as "ribbons of death" for herps. My point is that even though vehicular traffic is a great danger to animals who cross roads, and exerts pressure on the size of their populations, nevertheless that is not likely to be a cause of the recent steep decline in amphibian populations specifically.

Reptiles, especially turtles, are likely to be more durable and long-lived than amphibians.

BioD, hopefully that snake has forgiven you, once it was explained to him/her in Heaven that the accident was not really your fault, and that you felt sincere remorse.

Then again, there is an old Peanuts cartoon, in which Sally shares with Charlie Brown her worrying thought, that when we die, we meet all the bugs whom we have ever squished ...

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 9:47 PM on 21 Apr 2008

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