Species-Specific Management (SSM)

Frogs

Frogs have several life stages and are an excellent example of why faunal managers must "manage for" life groups, not simply species or conventional taxa.

Richardson (1993) suggested frogs appear to be disappearing "alarmingly fast worldwide" and there is little explanation for that. Losses may signal water, soil, or air toxicity or increased levels of ultraviolet radiation related to loss of the ozone layer.

Studies by some federal agencies are underway.

Frogs are a major link in some food webs, consumer and contributor, and harbor parasites.

Management needs to be life group as well as species specific. Sufficient information is not available. Major general steps:

• Provide water (pH and temperature specific needs may some day be known) for the eggs
• Protect the eggs from predation (insects, salamanders, fish, raccoons, etc)
• Protect the tadpoles
• Protect the adults
  • from birds, dogs, feral cats
  • insecticide sprays and systemics
  • harvest of select trees in which they reside and feed
• Learn to recognize them and their calls
• Share such knowledge with others
• Keep a life list
• Keep a record of population changes (calls per hour, sightings, tadpoles seen, etc.)

See: The Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division, NEW “CALLS OF THE WILD – VOCALIZATIONS OF GEORGIA’S FROGS” COMPACT DISK August, 2003 For more information, contact Kitty Esco, Sr. Public Relations & Information Specialist -- (478) 994-1438 John Jensen, Wildlife Biologist -- (478) 994-1438

For more information on frog and toad conservation problems and potential solutions, please visit the Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation website: www.parcplace.org

For general information on Georgia’s frogs please visit: http://wwknapp.home.mindspring.com/GAFrog.Toad.html

References

Richardson, S. 1993. Frogs: are they disappearing? Forestry West, USDA For. Serv. Rocky Mt. Forest and Range Exp. Sta., Ft. Collins, CO. Feb

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision July 10, 2002.