clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings Posted by mikeygraz 5 Omaha, NE (My Page) on Fri, Jul 11, 08 at 15:43 PervinPatty - Obviously you didn't do YOUR research on this subject. You undoubtedly got your information from the following website: www.californiaherps.com This is an excellent resource, and I know some of the people who have put that whole thing together. You obviously didn't look at the species list closely enough, as you will see that the southern leopard frog (Rana utricularia) is an INTRODUCED species - that means it is not native and doesn't belong there! While northern leopard frogs once had a few spots in northerneastern California where they were present, it is likely that they are EXTIRPATED (that means they are gone) from the state now, as it also says on that site and if you actually took the time to read scientific journals (as I do) you'll see that repeated efforts to find relict populations have failed. Also, you'll notice that northern leopard frogs never ranged into Central california, where you say you live...so again, that goes back to my saying you shouldn't be bringing in nonnative or nonlocal species. Obviously you didn't read my original post - do you really think that a northern leopard frog (or leopard toad, as you put it, haha) with its origins in North Carolina would survive in your region? I doubt it...not to mention the fact that it is ILLEGAL. You tried using the word "indigenous" as well - you have to use that word with some measure of scale - there are lots of anurans indigenous to California - but how about YOUR LOCAL area? I guess by your rules, you could take a Couch's spadefoot toad from extreme southeastern CA and put it in your pond...because its indigenous to California, right? Or maybe a Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea), because they are indigenous to the United State, and they sure are pretty! Again, do your research, and if you're too lazy to go find some construction sites or golf courses nearby you, then tough luck. Don't get pissy at me for advising and educating you about the problems that could be caused by your actions. ~Mike An old post but worth repeating!

I have some buckets and small containers that are always full of water. They attract mosquitoes, and for a while I thought they were also full of tadpoles. But the tadpoles turned out to be mosquito pupa, alas. Plenty of them, but no tree frogs yet. I thought of mosquito fish, but would they eat the tadpoles if I had some? I could go down to the local creek and find some tree frog eggs, if I knew what to look for. My current buckets and containers with water probably have some algae growing and might be a good place to put the eggs. Is this the wrong time of year to look for eggs?

lol, Paula. That is just what I was thinking when this thread was resurrected! I was wondering if everyone else had missed the frogs as much as I had after far too many quiet years. Long ago, probably in the summer of 2006, after southern OK had suffered through the drought years of the early 2000s (except for 2004) and especially the drought of 2005-06, we had a summer rainstorm. We sat out under the covered patio and watched the frogs come out of the lily pond and hop all over from puddle to puddle while it was still raining. I think we got almost 4" that day in just a couple of hours. After the rain, still sitting under the patio cover (and listening on our fire radios to firefighters at the north end of the county fighting a haybarn fire starting, unfortunately, by lightning) we watched a rainbow appear and we watched the frogs for an hour or two. A few days later, everyone in our neighborhood was out frantically trying to catch up on mowing and trimming, and we often stopped for conversations with passers-by while mowing down by the road. At such times, our road is more like a sidewalk..... The funny thing was that when we compared notes on the rainy day, we found that other neighbors also were sitting on porches and covered patios, watching the frogs. It was too funny. We poked fun at ourselves for watching the frogs..."you might be a redneck if....you sit in the rain and watch the frogs play", etc., but the truth was that the frogs that day were a symbol of so many things---how horrible the droughts had been and how we finally had hope the drought would break being just two of those things. As it turned out, true drought relief was a few more months away, but the heavy rainfall and frogs that came out to play that day still served as a sign that good times would return. Sometimes in the midst of awful drought, frogs are such a good, positive sign that some sort of normalcy has returned. That's how I feel this year---things are so much more normal, weatherwise, than they have been in ages. Dawn

There's a number of factors that come into play in these situations. A body of water is slow to heat up, unlike air which, especially if dry, will change temperature fairly rapidly. But the water won't cool down as fast as air either. Waterlily leaves shield the water from the sun and slow the heating process. Also, water near the surface will heat up more than the deeper water below which will remain cooler. That said, as water gets warmer it looses oxygen. If your tadpoles are normally from a cool mountain stream where water constantly cascades and absorbs lots of oxygen it might not be a good environment for them. If they're from more of an open still water environment they shouldn't have any problems. We have some species of tadpole that can live in water that gets up to 40C (temperature of a hot shower). They've adapted to it. Wouldn't be so good for tadpoles from a cooler tropical rainforest environment.