 David
Against Goliath
That's how it seems
when you look at all the threats frog populations face in our current
environment. Frogs have been around this planet in their modern form for
roughly 50,000,000 years, but in the past 25 years, their numbers have
been under vicious assault to the point that species are going extinct
at the drop of a hat.
It is worth dividing
up the threats into two categories. Some localised threats (threats which
are confined to a specific area) in Australia are:
-
cattle grazing
- agricultural chemicals
and runoff
- hazard-reduction
("controlled") burns
- habitat loss and
fragmentation
- habitat modification
and degradation
- introduced feral
land animals (cats, dogs, foxes, etc.)
- introduced and
translocated predatory fish (salmon, trout, Gambusia, etc.)
- removal of riparian
vegetation and cementing of creeks
- road kills
- sedimentation in
streams
- endocrine disrupters
and other chemical pollutants
- domestic and commercial
use of pesticides and herbicides
- apathy
The last item in the
above list isn't usually listed as a threat but it is a very serious one.
Apathy can take many forms from the individual who finds a frog in obvious
distress and walks by without helping it - to a government agency which
is provided with all the evidence of a new threat to frog populations
and chooses to ignore the evidence or even stifle the distribution of
that information.
Some of the threats
listed above are even localised down to the habits of an individual household
or property such as uncontrolled cats and dogs or the use of pesticides
and herbicides around the home. Other threats aren't so obvious but they
are revealed by some of the patients that have been turned into the Cairns
Frog Hospital. For example, some frogs have been injured by being:
- squashed in windows
and doors being shut by unaware people
- poisoned (deliberate
and accidental)
- burned and scalded
(usually accidental but, very sorry to say, sometimes deliberate)
- sprayed with Dettol
and other chemicals intended for cane toads
- accidentally stepped
on or crushed by falling objects (flower pots, display stands in outdoor
shops, tree branches, etc.)
- lacerated by farm
machinery or workers harvesting fruit
- lacerated by backyard
gardening equipment such as whipper-snippers and hedge trimmers
These examples show
that sometimes the interaction between frogs and people isn't very friendly
at all. There are also bigger problems at work and you'll find these on
our global threats page.
|
