Frog hunting?

Why do people hunt amphibians?

When most people think of overexploitation, amphibians do not jump to mind as an animal suffering from overhunting. However, amphibians are utilized for a number of different things for people including: food, medicine, pets, science and education (figure 1).



Figure 1- Figure by Heidi Rockney showing current reasons amphibians are collected from the wild according to research, references listed at bottom of page.

Food

There are several frogs around the world people eat. In the United States, frog 'gigging' (hunting) is a popular sport. People go out at night with bright lights into frog ponds and look for their reflective eyes and scoop them up. Frog legs are popular not only in the United States, but across Europe and Asia. In Africa, the Goliath Frog (the world's largest frog) is fast disappearing because of overhunting. The Goliath Frog is only found in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea and efforts to captive breed the giant frog have not been successful. People rely on its meat for a good protein source and it is difficult to stop the overexploitation. The Japanese and Chinese Giant Salamanders (the world's largest amphibians) are also heavily exploited. They are considered a delicacy and often eaten at celebrations. Both these salamanders are endangered and extensive steps have been undertaken to control their illegal harvest. Photo credit: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/goliath%20frog

 

Medicine

Amphibians are amazing creatures that can provide us with a number of medicinal remedies. There are cultures all over the world that use amphibians as ingredients in folk remedies. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, toad secretions are regularly used to treat pain, HIV infection and even cancer! The secretions of the Chinese Giant Salamander are used as an anti-aging topical wrinkle treatment (in the popular product: Koch Green Collagen) as well as treatment for various ailments including malaria, blood disease, cholera, anemia and epilepsy. In Peru, secretions from the Giant Waxy Frog are used in a mind, body detox ceremony (Kombo Frog Medicine). The Mexican Axolotl has long been used to treat breathing ailments and now there may be none left in the wild! Photo credit: Epoch Times.

 

Education

Many school programs have had (and many still do!) frog dissections as part of biology class curriculums. In Canada, so many of the once plentiful Leopard frogs were collected for use in school dissections that they are now endangered in the wild. You can actually buy frogs for dissection from many companies. The majority of these companies still catch the frogs and salamanders from the wild, depleting already threatened populations. If you are interested in dissecting frogs, check out the really cool virtual frog dissection website. If they still dissect real frogs at your school, remember you do not have to support the slaughter of these frogs and can encourage your teachers to purchase a virtual frog dissection program. Photo credit: Home Science Tools.

Pet Trade

Amphibians in the exotic pet trade are big business! In a study done on the Texan exotic pet trade, 247 non-native amphibians were available as pets. Many of these are wild caught and heavily contribute to wild amphibian population declines. The Mexican Axolotl (photo on left: National Geographic is a very common and popular pet amphibian. They were only found in a few small areas in Mexico and now may be extinct in the wild. Often exotic amphibians are released into areas they are not from, either by escaping enclosures or abandoned by owners who no longer want them. If you want a pet amphibian, be sure you can dedicate time to its care and be positive it is not wild caught! Amphibians are also collected for curios. Below is an example of a fad that takes collected salamanders and seals them alive in plastic to make key chains keychains (see photo below:http://www.savethesalamanders.com/threats.html) , where it can take up to a few weeks for them to slowly die. Sometimes frogs are caught and dried into little poses for sale as souvenirs.

Science

Amphibians are often collected in the name of science. In historic times, they were collected frequently and in great quantity. These specimens provide a valuable resource for the scientific community. Today, most scientific collection is heavily regulated and is only done when there is either no risk to upsetting wild population numbers or when a species is extremely threatened. When a species is on a downhill slide towards extinction, conservationists and scientists sometimes will collect specimens from the wild to initiate a captive breeding program. The amphibians are raised in a protected environment, to encourage a higher survival rate of juveniles that can later be introduced back into the native habitat. These programs only work, if the threats that originally caused the species to decline have been eliminated or controlled. Photo credit: Nature

Next

References:

Amphibians. Endangered Species International [online] Available: http://www.endangeredspeciesinternational.org/amphibians6.html (3/1/2013)

Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) EDGE [online] Available: http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphibians/species_info.php?id=552 (3/1/2013)

Conraua goliath, Goliath Frog, Giant Frog. Amphibaweb [online] Available: goliath frog. (3/1/2013)

Darmananda, Subhuti. Treatment of Leukemia Using Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine. Institute for Traditional Medicine [online] Available: http://www.itmonline.org/arts/leukemia.htm (3/1/2013)

Garg, A., Hippargi, R.V., Gandhare, A.N. Toad Skin Secretions: Potent source of Pharmacologically and Therapeutically Significant Compounds. Internet Journal of Phamracology [online] Available: http://www.ispub.com/journal/the-internet-journal-of-pharmacology/volume-5-number-2/toad-skin-secretions-potent-source-of-pharmacologically-and-therapeutically-significant-compounds.html#sthash.xl0L6gUi.dpbs (3/1/2013)

Gomes, M.B., Kambo, The Spirit of the Shaman. Ayahuasca.com [online] Available: http://www.ayahuasca.com/spirit/kambo-the-spirit-of-the-shaman/ (3/1/2013)

iNaturalist.org. Goliath Frog (Conraua goliath) iNaturalist [online] Available: http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/Conraua_goliath (3/1/2013)

Prestridge, H.L., Fitzgerald, L.A.., Hibbits, T.J. 2011. Trade in non native amphibians and reptiles in Texas: lessons for better monitoring and implications for species introduction. Herpetological Conservation and Biology [online] Available: http://herpconbio.org/Volume_6/Issue_3/Prestridge_etal_2011.pdf (3/1/2013)

Qiang, D., Yuezhao, W., Gang, L.Conservation Status of Chinese Giant Salamander (Andrias davidianus). Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Normal University. [online] Available: http://www.cepf.net/Documents/final_CIBCAS_giantsalamander_china.pdf