The bullfrogs revenge

“Columbia ecosystems

July 2004

Ask a Southern boy who's spent a few nights in a swamp with a gig and a light what would happen if bullfrogs grew to be bigger than people. He'd likely tell you that man's seat as the supreme predator would be in jeopardy.

The fact is, there is nothing much more voracious than a bullfrog. A frog the size of a saucer really has no qualms with attacking a duckling or anything else it might deem tasty—even a housecat.

Karen MacGregor of British Columbia has seen just such a run-in with a problematic bullfrog. Her cat, Boots, treads a little more cautiously around ponds these days after an apparent attack by a bullfrog.

MacGregor told a writer for the CBC News, "She [Boots] was sitting on the edge of this pond right beside this big bullfrog and I said, 'Boots, don't go near that bullfrog.' I turned and went into the barn, and just a second or so later, she came hobbling in. She was crying and crying and dragging her hind leg. She was soaking wet and I knew the bullfrog had gotten her."

Environmentalists in the area are concerned about the proliferation of the bullfrogs because they breed rapidly and eat native frog species and fish. Perhaps Southern frog giggers will be asked to help in the near future.

From Outdoor Life Mag”

“frog giggers.

heheheh.

cracks me up.”

“hey that's big sport where I grew up!”

“Mmmm, frog legs!”

“tastes like chicken.”

“Notreally. THe texture is much smoother but not soft, when cooked properly.”

“Bullfrogs are a problem in Arizona also. In the canals out there they are breeding like gangbusters and they eat anything that they can swallow (like some girls I know) which is alot!”

“jeramiah was a bullfrog, doo dooot doo.”

“Le Haillan, France - Picture this: French hunters stealing out at night in pairs, one with a torch to light up the eyes of their prey, the other armed with a .22 calibre rifle equipped with a telescopic sight and a silencer.

Their quarry? Invaders from the United States - bullfrogs, to be precise, that bellow like cows and typically weigh in at a hefty 600 grams.

This is France, to be sure, but the end game of this hunt is not sauteed frog legs.

These marksmen are ecologists, out to exterminate the bullfrogs - a.k.a. Rana Catesbeina - which are threatening the local ecosystem.

"A man living in Vayres (30 kilometres east of Bordeaux) stocked his pond with them in 1968 as a joke, and a few years later every stretch of water in the region was full of them," said Luc Gueugneau, who works in the government agency overseeing wild animals and hunting.

The bullfrogs live for as long as nine years, hibernating from October to March, but the rest of the time gorging on local frogs, shellfish, insects, and even fledgling birds, said ecologist Mathieu Detaint.

They have virtually no predators, and each lay up to 25 000 eggs a year, against 10 000 laid by the local frogs.

"We tried draining the ponds, but it costs a lot and is not efficient enough because there are always some bullfrogs that remain," Detaint said.

One thing that did work, though, he said, was trapping the tadpoles and very young frogs in nets.

Said Gueugneau: "For the moment, hunting the adults with rifles has proved to be the most efficient way of attacking them, because it gets rid of those able to reproduce."

The hunting is done at night, as that is when the frogs are most active and easiest to spot.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=qw1124519760486F652&set_id=1&click_id=29”

“Them's good eatin'!”