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March 21, 2011 7:27 AM Subscribe
To deny the awesomeness of frogs would be foolish. They are colourful, they are diverse, and if they were the size of humans, they could leap over buildings! 10 facts and 25 pictures about our amphibious friends, the mighty Frog!
if they were the size of humans, they could leap over buildings!
The square-cube law would like to have a word with you.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:48 AM on March 21, 2011 [8 favorites]
The square-cube law would like to have a word with you.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:48 AM on March 21, 2011 [8 favorites]
And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs
posted by adamvasco at 8:01 AM on March 21, 2011
posted by adamvasco at 8:01 AM on March 21, 2011
So apparently there is a frog genus known as the "Pacman frogs." My day just got a tiny bit better.
posted by a small part of the world at 8:27 AM on March 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by a small part of the world at 8:27 AM on March 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
I would love frogs a whole lot more if I hadn't read so much Hellboy. Now I don't trust them and suspect that they intend to immanentize the eschaton and summon forth that which should not be named.
More seriously, I imagine there is much to be discovered by looking into why mankind so fears the frog. They might be "slimy" in some people's eyes but otherwise they aren't dangerous at all (excepting poison arrow frogs and "milking" the delicious bufotoxins of the Colorado River Toad, then operating heavy machinery, obviously).
I'd be interested in knowing if there is any sort of reason that we are down on the otherwise amicable amphibians.
posted by longbaugh at 8:38 AM on March 21, 2011
More seriously, I imagine there is much to be discovered by looking into why mankind so fears the frog. They might be "slimy" in some people's eyes but otherwise they aren't dangerous at all (excepting poison arrow frogs and "milking" the delicious bufotoxins of the Colorado River Toad, then operating heavy machinery, obviously).
I'd be interested in knowing if there is any sort of reason that we are down on the otherwise amicable amphibians.
posted by longbaugh at 8:38 AM on March 21, 2011
looking into why mankind so fears the frog ... I'd be interested in knowing if there is any sort of reason that we are down on the otherwise amicable amphibians
I honestly didn't know there was a general human fear/dislike of frogs. I, for one, [opposite of fear] and like them.
posted by ericost at 8:41 AM on March 21, 2011 [3 favorites]
I honestly didn't know there was a general human fear/dislike of frogs. I, for one, [opposite of fear] and like them.
posted by ericost at 8:41 AM on March 21, 2011 [3 favorites]
Why are some of the frogs missing labels?! How can I greet my new friends if I do not know their names?
posted by pickinganameismuchharderthanihadanticipated at 8:43 AM on March 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by pickinganameismuchharderthanihadanticipated at 8:43 AM on March 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
In rural New England, you often find little towns have some big "legend" or "story" of something that happened back in the Colonial days -- some ghost story or tragic doomed maiden story or something like that.
With my hometown, it involved frogs. What happened was: the town was a cluster of houses at the base of a hill, and one summer night, at about midnight, everyone suddenly was startled awake by a huge ungodly noise coming from further up the hill. Everyone tumbled out of bed and gathered in the town square, fearing that it was everything from attacking Indians to the trumpets heralding judgement day. They sent a search party up the hill, but the acoustics made it sound like the noise was coming from directly over people's heads, which freaked them out even more so they retreated and decided to search in daylight. The sounds faded as dawn broke, and the team bravely trooped up the hill again -- and when they got to the local mill pond, they saw that the pond had dried to the point that it was just a puddle. And lining the dried up pond bed, they saw the tiny, battered carcasses of hundreds of bullfrogs. They realized that the frogs had all come downstream in search of water and were fighting over the puddle in the pond; so that meant the whole town had spent a sleepless night frightened out of their wits because of a bunch of froggies.
Apparently my town was the butt of jokes for a while, but then embraced it - the official town seal sports a frog as its emblem, the local bank printed currency with a frog on it for a while (colonial banks printed their own money sometimes) and in later years people wrote epic poems and operettas about it. (My hometown theater guild produced a staging of this operetta in 1985.)
I grew up about ten minutes' walk from that mill pond and there's a memorial stone set up there and everything.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:49 AM on March 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
With my hometown, it involved frogs. What happened was: the town was a cluster of houses at the base of a hill, and one summer night, at about midnight, everyone suddenly was startled awake by a huge ungodly noise coming from further up the hill. Everyone tumbled out of bed and gathered in the town square, fearing that it was everything from attacking Indians to the trumpets heralding judgement day. They sent a search party up the hill, but the acoustics made it sound like the noise was coming from directly over people's heads, which freaked them out even more so they retreated and decided to search in daylight. The sounds faded as dawn broke, and the team bravely trooped up the hill again -- and when they got to the local mill pond, they saw that the pond had dried to the point that it was just a puddle. And lining the dried up pond bed, they saw the tiny, battered carcasses of hundreds of bullfrogs. They realized that the frogs had all come downstream in search of water and were fighting over the puddle in the pond; so that meant the whole town had spent a sleepless night frightened out of their wits because of a bunch of froggies.
Apparently my town was the butt of jokes for a while, but then embraced it - the official town seal sports a frog as its emblem, the local bank printed currency with a frog on it for a while (colonial banks printed their own money sometimes) and in later years people wrote epic poems and operettas about it. (My hometown theater guild produced a staging of this operetta in 1985.)
I grew up about ten minutes' walk from that mill pond and there's a memorial stone set up there and everything.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:49 AM on March 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
They are less than awesome when camped right outside my bedroom window croaking all night...
posted by zeoslap at 8:52 AM on March 21, 2011
posted by zeoslap at 8:52 AM on March 21, 2011
More things in the world should look like this.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:03 AM on March 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by shakespeherian at 9:03 AM on March 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
It's a shame they couldn't find room in their ten facts and 25 pictures to mention that frogs are facing a mass extinction. Just a passing reference would have been nice, is all. It didn't have to be preachy, but I think it's more than a little bit worth mentioning while you're breathlessly telling us how awesome frogs are.
posted by londonmark at 9:11 AM on March 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by londonmark at 9:11 AM on March 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
The Honey Badger narrator has a segment on the American Bullfrog. Gross!
posted by Metroid Baby at 9:28 AM on March 21, 2011
posted by Metroid Baby at 9:28 AM on March 21, 2011
I grew up in one of those places where frogs do a mass-migration thing very x years. After trying to drive through disgusting rivers of living and dead frogs swarming across the roads, seeing frog-induced car accidents, driving in the dark while frogs SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT on your windshield... yeah, I can live without frogs.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 9:29 AM on March 21, 2011
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 9:29 AM on March 21, 2011
Unraveling the Mystery Of The Bizarre Deformed Frogs
posted by homunculus at 9:34 AM on March 21, 2011
posted by homunculus at 9:34 AM on March 21, 2011
Any parent who wants to teach their kids about nature owes it to themselves to put a small pond in the backyard. Any tiny thing that holds water will do. If you are even remotely close to water, frogs will find the water and do their thing.
You get to watch (and hear!) the mating rituals, you see the eggs, you watch the tadpoles develop, you see the tails absorbed and the tiny baby frogs/toads hop off.
If your kids take to it, and they will, you will be treated to nightly frog searches, your kids learning to mimic frog calls to call back and forth, and perhaps even the majestic Frog Hair Ride*
* These are eastern grey tree frogs from our yard. While my boys have certainly confused a few frogs to the best of my knowledge they have never harmed one. They know the frogs can only be handled for a few minutes before they need to be returned to the water.
posted by Patapsco Mike at 9:38 AM on March 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
You get to watch (and hear!) the mating rituals, you see the eggs, you watch the tadpoles develop, you see the tails absorbed and the tiny baby frogs/toads hop off.
If your kids take to it, and they will, you will be treated to nightly frog searches, your kids learning to mimic frog calls to call back and forth, and perhaps even the majestic Frog Hair Ride*
* These are eastern grey tree frogs from our yard. While my boys have certainly confused a few frogs to the best of my knowledge they have never harmed one. They know the frogs can only be handled for a few minutes before they need to be returned to the water.
posted by Patapsco Mike at 9:38 AM on March 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
I spend a lot of time in pet stores, and I've come to one conclusion; poison dart frogs are all animatronic toys. They never move, they are always posed photogenically, and their little tiny breathing could easily be accomplished by a pager motor.
Every day, the staff comes in and rearranges them in the aquariums, so as to keep people convinced that they are real.
Because really, am I supposed to believe that something so cute, delicate, and absurdly colored could actually have evolved? Pffft. Not likely.
posted by quin at 9:45 AM on March 21, 2011
Every day, the staff comes in and rearranges them in the aquariums, so as to keep people convinced that they are real.
Because really, am I supposed to believe that something so cute, delicate, and absurdly colored could actually have evolved? Pffft. Not likely.
posted by quin at 9:45 AM on March 21, 2011
'Tis not the season in Minnesota. The ponds are still kinda frozen.
Which sucks, I could use some frogs right about now, to remind me that it won't stay winter forever around here.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:21 AM on March 21, 2011
Which sucks, I could use some frogs right about now, to remind me that it won't stay winter forever around here.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:21 AM on March 21, 2011
Sadly, the article missed one incredibly valuable point about frogs: they cannot filter toxins from water, so they are an incredible barometer of local ecosystem health. Frogs are usually the first to die off, when the water is becoming polluted with chemicals, and having many frogs in your area is a very very good thing. So, if you remember a lot of frogs as a child, but wonder where they are now...
posted by Bushidoboy at 11:41 AM on March 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Bushidoboy at 11:41 AM on March 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
"I, for one, [opposite of fear] and like them"
Any of them turned into princes/princesses (delete as applicable) yet? ;)
posted by longbaugh at 12:49 PM on March 21, 2011
Any of them turned into princes/princesses (delete as applicable) yet? ;)
posted by longbaugh at 12:49 PM on March 21, 2011
I love frogs. They are adorable at any size!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 7:06 PM on March 21, 2011
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 7:06 PM on March 21, 2011
Any of them turned into princes/princesses (delete as applicable) yet?
Well, no. But I'm telling you, you've never tongue kissed until you've tongue kissed a frog.
posted by ericost at 8:59 AM on March 22, 2011
Well, no. But I'm telling you, you've never tongue kissed until you've tongue kissed a frog.
posted by ericost at 8:59 AM on March 22, 2011
Reaches the parts other amphibians just can't reach I'll wager.
posted by longbaugh at 11:51 AM on March 22, 2011
posted by longbaugh at 11:51 AM on March 22, 2011
Indomitable Snow Frogs: Cold-blooded frogs can’t be coy about romance when fleeting summer comes to the French Alps.
posted by homunculus at 6:57 PM on March 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by homunculus at 6:57 PM on March 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
I love frogs. It is as simple as that. I find them generally beautiful. They make me glad. I am particularly partial to the common American leopard frog.
In South Africa, there is serious fear of frogs. Mind, those frogs are what I would call toads. But anyway, I learned that an unexpected, blood-curdling scream from the house keeper was almost certainly her finding a frog, probably sleeping/hiding behind the beanbag chair. I was strict about frogs and lizards in the house not being harmed, so I had to remove the frogs. The lizards there was nothing to do but tolerate (or enjoy!) them.
posted by Goofyy at 4:44 AM on March 23, 2011
In South Africa, there is serious fear of frogs. Mind, those frogs are what I would call toads. But anyway, I learned that an unexpected, blood-curdling scream from the house keeper was almost certainly her finding a frog, probably sleeping/hiding behind the beanbag chair. I was strict about frogs and lizards in the house not being harmed, so I had to remove the frogs. The lizards there was nothing to do but tolerate (or enjoy!) them.
posted by Goofyy at 4:44 AM on March 23, 2011
This right here is one of the best pictures ever. He looks so....noble.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:02 AM on March 23, 2011
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:02 AM on March 23, 2011
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posted by hydrophonic at 7:40 AM on March 21, 2011 [1 favorite]