Do you remember when we used to hear frogs?

I watched a PBS NOVA special on the plight of frogs. We are losing frogs - they are in danger of mass extinction. There seems to be a worldwide infestation of a fungus that lives on the skin of frogs and slowly kills them by blocking oxygen. Frogs breathe through their skin, at least in part, and the fungus causes them to suffocate. Except for a small part of Panama, the fungus exists all over the planet and will probably invade this last safe area soon. This is very sad. Scientists are capturing the endangered frogs and keeping them in captivity in special breeding programs in the hope of finding fungus resistant strains of the different frog varieties. There have been some successes but the picture is bleak in most cases.

As a kid, frogs were one of the most common wild animals we encountered. The local ponds were full of tadpoles. We would collect frog eggs and keep them in a jar just to watch the tadpoles hatch out. I used to capture frogs and toads and baptize them when I was in a particularly religious mood. Maybe there will be a few frogs in heaven.  I remember the childhood debates we had about toads and whether we would get warts if we touched them. It never kept us from touching them. Toads would almost always pee on you when you picked them up. We figured that the pee was what made the warts.

Frogs ruled the night. The sound of frogs at night was ever-present. This was really true in a rainy springtime and early summer. Bull Frogs were the Potentates of the frog world. They were huge and very loud with a low booming voice. Tree frogs were peepers up in the trees. They were a background chorus for the mighty Bull Frogs.


When I was ten I had two pet salamanders that lived in a washtub in the back yard. Salamanders are similar to frogs and are now facing the same hazards. Mine seemed quite happy in their washtub world but salamanders apparently like to migrate. They must recognize some cosmic message that tells them that it is time to move on. One night my salamanders got the call and were off on an adventure. I know that one was eaten by a garter snake before he got very far. I won't go into how I know that. I just hope the other one made it to the local salamander rendezvous unscathed.


I remember seeing flattened frog and toad corpses on the road when I walked to school. They were probably on their way to an important gathering of amphibians when they met their Maker crossing the road. There were so many frogs and toads that it seemed like nothing would ever make a dent in the population. Frogs and toads were everywhere.


We would go spend a couple weeks at my uncle's cabin on the Big Piney River and at least once he would fix up "a mess of frog legs". These were usually Bull Frogs whose legs ended up on the plate. They looked like little peoples' legs. You would go out at night in a boat and paddle quietly waiting for a Bull Frog to sing out and then you would sneak up on him and blind him with a flashlight while the other person gigged him with a nine foot harpoon. The "Gig" had three points so you were pretty much bound to get him if you were any good at all. The impaled frogs were sort of stunned but seemed almost not to notice that they had been run through. Of course the points were barbed so he couldn't get off the gig and he soon ended up in a burlap bag on the bottom of the boat. It takes quite a few frogs to equal a "mess".


Not too many years ago we had a small tree frog who came to our screen door at night to eat the moths and bugs that were attracted by the light. We named him Edgar after one of our favorite baseball players, Edgar Renteria. Edgar was a hit with both my daughter and the family cat. Jill delighted in his nightly arrivals and would look for him and be disappointed if he didn't show up. Purro, our cat, was also delighted to see him but for other reasons. Purro would sit or lay quietly by the screen door and watch Edgar until he couldn't stand it any longer and he would swat the screen and Edgar would jump. One night Edgar got inside somehow and Purro pounced while three humans squealed and dove for the cat. We saved Edgar and put him back outside much to Purro's aggravation. Edgar, or maybe Edgar's kids, came back every year for a while but eventually disappeared. Even Edgar Renteria was eventually traded to Boston.

We have a little frog pond about 400 feet away back in the woods. We used to hear frogs at night but not anymore. Occasionally we will hear a peeper up in the trees or even close by on the deck (Edgar? Is that you?) but not very often. I will occasionally see a toad in the yard. Toads are more adaptable to dry conditions and sometimes would venture into the garden. I haven't seen a salamander in decades.

I hope that someday our kids' grandkids will still get to discover and enjoy frogs.