Martyn Stewart wrote:
> When you catch them Walt, your not going to dissect them are you? Yuk!
Not me. I do understand the needs of science, so have to deal with the
idea that something I collect may die. I know that delicate balance.
As I understand how they are doing DNA testing now they obtain a drop of
blood from the frog. I know from some correspondence with someone on
gray treefrogs that with those this can be done without harming the
frog. In their study they pay for the shipment of the live frogs both
ways and they are returned to the wild. I do not know if this is
possible with something as small as a narrowmouth toad.
Most modern biologists are much more careful about harming the wildlife.
For instance when I found the Brimley's the frogs I collected were cared
for, looked at and photographed lots, but eventually someone was
assigned to drive half way across the state to put them back. Or more
like they found a staff person going that way.
Yes, a small percentage are still put in preservative, but far less than
it used to be.
The arcane frog torture I'm figuring out at the moment is how to
investigate frog release calls. These are special calls, and sometimes
more, that a male frog gives when grabbed by another male to tell him he
made a error. Easy to demonstrate on male toads, think about how you
will grab the smaller frogs to test them. Take, for instance the Little
Grass Frog, which full grown is well under 1/2". They are too small to
grab at all, we coax them into our hand, or just onto a fingertip. I've
been running around in my mind various grabber designs to use.
Walt
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