France is suffering from an invasion of frogs. The French are now attempting to cull the critters. The French Wildlife Agency has hunters tracking down and killing the rogue amphibians.
“They have been mobilized for the most intensive effort so far to terminate a plague of giant Californian bullfrogs which is threatening to disrupt the ecology of the Gironde, Dordogne and several other départements.
The aggressive and voracious bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana), introduced illegally 37 years ago, can grow to more than 4lbs in weight and almost 2ft long. It consumes other frogs, fish, lizards and even small birds.”
That’s one big frog. And, unfortunately, like other introduced species elsewhere, they are endangering the indigenous species, so they have to go. Apparently this is easier said than done.
“Destroying the frogs is not easy, however. The Gironde fisheries protection association attacked a pond full of bullfrogs with electricity a few years ago. The frogs fought back. The hunters battled with them for two hours. They killed just one frog before they gave up.”
I can’t help thinking there’s an irony in this story somewhere…
In China, Brazil turtle invaded into China, they eat erything they met, and is killing out the indigenous turtle.
Acyually, China has same problem in many fields, but we’re used to it, for we’re such a big country, and we own large and broad earth, so we don’t fear anything!it’s Gov’s thoughts, really stupid.
We have a similar problem with the Cane Toad in northern Australia. Apart from this though, having frogs around is generally considered a good thing, as their numbers have declined due to development, introduced predators (eg cats, dogs, foxes, etc) and pollution.
I still had to snicker, though – good post 🙂