How Frogs Work

We've recorded a lot of ads our lifetime. We have. We've really been contributing to the pile. How you feeling I'm feeling great? Are you feeling froggy? I'm really sorry. I had no idea this is gonna happen. Um, I am feeling froggy. And right off the bat, we should go ahead and thank Tracy TV Wilson. Tracy V. Wilson stuff you missed in history class, because this is one of her great great animal articles. Yep, she's written the best. She really has. Um. This one doesn't contain the words

mouth what was it? Mouth parts? Mouth parts? Yeah, she tried to work it in. She just it got edited out. I think. Um, so we are we're talking frogs today, Chuck. I can't believe we haven't talked about them before. I know, I love frogs, Um, I love them too. And it's sad for us then, because it turns out that frogs apparently are going extinct at an alarming rate. Entire species just dropping off the face of the earth. In fact, one species one extinct here in our fair city of Atlanta.

Did you know that? Really? Yeah? Last um, oh, September of two thousand and sixteen, so about a year ago, the very last RABS fringe limbed tree frog died at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. His name was Toughy, and uh, from what I understand, it didn't like to be handled. That was his, that was his choice, you know. So

he was the last of it. The species was found I think in the late eighties or late nineties, and we figured out pretty quickly that they were endangered, and the last one that was heard in the wild was and I think two thousand five, and so they thought tough he was the last one. And so a frog species went extinct in Atlanta. And apparently that's just one domino out of many. That's that's going on right now.

There was a study from two thousand fifteen that concluded three which is about two hundred species of frog species have gone extinct since the nineteen seventies, right, which is like, wow, that's it seems like a lot prepared are for it to seem like even more? Are you ready for this? So? Amphibians and reptiles have really high extinction rates as it is. They apparently have an extinction rate of about ten thousand times other animals, and frog's extinction rate is higher than

most other amphibians and reptiles. So the frogs are going fast. And the reason why it matters, besides the fact that we love frogs, is that they're also known as an indicator species. They're particularly fragile, they're found all over the world, and they seem to be trying to tell us that the Earth is going lopsided as far as well the global ecosystem goes. That's sad. Yeah, I remember we talked about those and I think was it charismatic megaphona? Yeah?

I guess so. All right, so you might as well get into this, almost said jump into this. But now I'm hyper aware of bad frog buns. Yeah. Sorry. Uh so, Tracy makes a great point here. Um, talking about frogs, and if you just said there with three percent of there's of different species is two hundred, So that shows you how many different species there are. Um, it's difficult to kind of talk about frogs in one big sweeping way because they differ so much, um, species to species.

They can be what is it, the gold frog is less than a centimeter, then you have goliath frogs that are over a foot at detail a foot thirty two centimeters. Yeah, a lot of them. Um, A lot of them like to be out at night. Some of them are more active in the morning, in the afternoon. Sometimes they live for a couple of years. Sometimes they live well, not many many years, but several years. Yeah. One one of the main things that frogs are known for, it's just

croaking or ribbiting. That's it would seem like that's universal. It's not. There's plenty of species that don't make any noise. Yeah, you think of green or brown. Uh, there are pink frogs, right, all kinds of colors. They are blue frogs. Um. The difference between toads and frogs isn't We might as well just consider one thing from what I can tell, right, Yeah, toads. True, toads belong to the Boufonidae family. Pretty sure, there's a

better way to say it. But it's a specific family that belongs to the order and Eura, which all frogs belong to the order of Eura. So toads are frogs. But even within that distinction, Um, there are some things that they're like, no, that's actually a toad. Like toads tend to have eyes that are lower on its head, more football shaped, whereas a frog has eyes higher up on its head and they're usually quite round, right, Um, But there are certain toads that have those kind of eyes,

and there's certain frogs that have toad like eyes. Like there's there's really you can't pin frogs down unless you're in science class. Right, even with their tails. That was great man, by the way, But even with their tails, right, So their their order, like I just said, a NeuRA means tail lists and it's it separates them from the other amphibians. Um. The fact that frogs don't have tails across the board. Actually no, there's two species that have tails. Yeah,

they're very vexing. There's a coastal tailed frog and the mountain tailed frog. Uh and I looked them up. You know, they're little tiny tails and they are the reproductive organs. It's a penis then, I don't understand why they don't just call it like the penis frog. There actually is a scrotum frog on Get this, there's a scrotum frog population at Lake Titty Kaka. You can't make this up. This is what frogs are here for. It's just to say amazing things. Here's one thing I didn't know, and

we're gonna be dropping in frog facts throughout. Um they molt. I had no idea that frogs can mold. Every two days they can mold, and they start out by um eating their own skin around its mouth. They basically eat the skin around the mouth, then pull pull the rest of their skin over their head like a like a dirty T shirt, and then they eat that like a dirty T shirt. Imagine that, man, Like you know when you get like a little your lip gets chopped and you kind of bite it like a little piece and

you pull it off. Oh man, it's a little raw. We'll imagine if that piece was like your your whole skin. Yeah, and then you'd be a frog or a toad either one. I think I'm more done with the toads because frogs are generally the slicker skin. Um. Toads are the ones that kind of have the bumpy, dryer skin. And I think they're the ones like when you pick them up and look at them, they like stare into your soul? Right? Get you trying to talk the toads? Do I think? So? Huh?

Am I getting that confused with frogs? I don't know. Have you ever kissed a frog? No? But I would under what circumstances. I don't know. A couple of drinks, a frog or a toad? Who would you kiss either one? I would kiss a toad, but then I would be a little just because I love animals, um and think they all deserve affection. But I would not. I would think twice. And we're gonna go over this later, but um, licking a frog for hallucinogenic h good times? Yeah, you

might want to think even more than twice. Yeah, I would. I would. I would not want to go down that road, right, But well, we'll get to that. There's I think you can kiss a frog and not necessarily hallucinate. You can. You just have to plan it right on its big old mouth really likes she will be like, here, take my skin. I was gonna eat it myself, but you can have it. So the reason why I made that bad but good science joke about pinning frogs down is they are one of the go to animals that you

will dissect in school. And the reason why they're one of the go to animals it's not just because teachers hate frogs, or that teachers love frogs, but it's that frogs they're trying to teach kids about internal organs um and not that of a frog. They're trying to teach them about themselves. Because it turns out when you cut open a frog, you might remember this, it's not a circuit board or a series of um balloons or golf balls.

When you cut open a frog, their heart and lungs and a stomach and a pancreas and a gall bladder and intestines and a liver. Yeah, largely connected in in the way that's similar to humans. Yeah, just all packed in that tiny little guy. I mean, they're all tiny organs, very cute, too appropriately sized. Yeah, they are cute. Remember that smell though formaldehyde. The formaldehyde stink of death, and it was not a good smell. It was not good um.

And so beyond just the internal organs to chuck. Like, if you look at a frog skeleton, especially like it's arms, it's extremities, it bears a resemblance to a human anatomy as well. Right, for sure, you've got humorous, a radia, a radius, and the ulna, just like with your arm. And then the frog's legs in back, they have a femur, a tibia, and a fibula just like your legs too. Yeah, the only difference is the radius and ulnar refused, and the tibia and fibula are fused where the not in

our bodies. And they have scapula and and clavicles, collar bones and shoulder blades too. Right, So like there's just basically little people with big mouths sort of. Well, there's actually some big princes to they have fingers and toes, they do. They have usually and again it's tough to generalize here, but a lot of frogs have four fingers in the front on their front feet and five on

their back. Yeah, and these little digits are gonna be they're gonna vary from species to species according to what the frogs um locomotion needs are. So like, if it's a tree frog, they're gonna be long and flexi so they can grab stuff. If they're swimmers, and all frogs and toads, we should point out need water to live. Yeah, we really have to get into that part um, which we will. But they have little webbed feet in toes of course. Yeah, it makes it easier for them to swim.

And what about the little burrowers, Yes, some of them. I get the impression that they burrow um to hibernate or estivate emilio estivate. We're feeling silly today, huh. I was watching Breakfast Club last night for the first time in years. How was it? It holds up? And I know that movie by heart. It's really remarkable how well I know that movie. But it does hold up, I think.

So the only thing that you know, like, it's not a very diverse movie, like no, you know, five five white kids and a white principle throwing a little bit of casual racism here there. Yeah, but I mean, you know, John Hughes has been accused of that in recent years. Yeah, just Long Duck Dong was his too, Huh Yeah, of course. Um and like the only time there were um, people of different ethnicities in his movies, they were kind of joked about or aped. I'm sure it's funny how history

can just like turn on you. You know. Yeah, he was probably like, wait, no, everybody loves me. I'm John Hughes. What do you mean we were all we all thought this was great. Don't you remember I'm John Hughes. Don't you know me? Yeah, it's very sad. Yeah, he was gone too soon. Um where were we? Familia west of Best? Oh? Yeah, the Amilio estivate, which is like hibernation in warm temperatures, you're hot temperatures when it gets so hot out that

for all intents and purposes, you can't go hunt. You're just like it's too hot. Yeah, I'm gonna dig myself a little hole and and lay here until it cools off a little bit. Yeah. And the whole point of that was is that their feet, uh and hands are shorter and wider like shovels, and like Amelia West of Best. Ironically, yeah, that guy can dig a hole faster than anyone you've ever seen. Uh, what are some of the different things. They don't have necks. You ever look at a frog,

you know it did? He didn't have a big, long neck that turns around and looks at you. They're just sort of these little squat heads sitting directly on their bodies. Yeah, like Fred Blint style. Yeah. And they as a result, they can't turn their heads right. You can't lift them up or down or turn them. If a frog ever turns his head and looks at you, then that is a evil possessed frog. Which I mean if a frog sitting there staring at you, especially if they're suddenly joined

by some companions, you should probably run away. There's just something super creepy about him. I can't remember the movie Chuck, what is the horror movie that features lots and lots of frogs? No, I don't know. It's like the Point of Them. I can't remember the name of it from the eighties, I believe, I don't know. I will happily respond to anybody who writes it was it the day the frogs took over? That's right, the day the frogs to still frog frog Nato frogs with an exclamation point.

What else they don't have ribs. Um, they have a pelvis that can slide up and down to help jump. Pretty cool. Which one the pelvis? Yeah, this is what it has, like a hole in it and it slides up and down the spine. I think so, so it can help it jump. Yeah, I think that's pretty cool. Um. And what else? I? Um, they they have well their eyes chucked the eyes they have? Um? So, like I said, frogs typically have eyes that sit on the top of their head and they can see quite well in a

lot like a very wide angle. They have a wide, wide view. Spantage Point could have put that better, but that helps compensate for the fact that they can't turn their heads right. But apparently, as as Tracy says, there, what one eye is getting in information is not really overlapping with the other eye. So they don't have binocular vision. They have vision from two different eyes. And um that

sounds like okay, whatever, who cares? But if you think about the depth perception it would take to pick a fly out of the air with your tongue, it suddenly becomes quite impressive that they don't seem to have binocular vision. And have you did you do it any any switch on their tongue, so chuck their tongue, right. They don't have a tongue that's anchored to the back of their mouth like we do. It's anchored to the front and

they can throw it out. And there was this one researcher who I think is working out of Georgia Tech, who filmed leopard frogs and the leopard frog can catch an insect with its tongue in point zero seven seconds, which is five times faster than humans blink right, So um, researchers want to know, like, how are they doing that? If you're hitting a fly with your tongue, you're gonna knock it away from you. How do they grab it? Right?

They figured that yes, there was something sticky and they they they determined that frog saliva is a non newtonium fluid, which remember we covered that in the Catchup episode. And just like catch Up, a frog saliva can turn sticky um or it can turn less sticky when you apply force to it. So when the tongue and this saliva on the tongue more importantly comes in contact forcefully with an insect, it thins out and it covers the insect.

But the moment it starts coming back and in the force reverses, and I'm sure I just got that wrong. I'm gonna hear about about physics from everybody. But once it stops being thin, it goes back to being viscous and somewhat sticky. And so now the fly or the insect has been covered in the sticky goo and is attached to the tongue is being brought it back into the frog's mouth, and all that happens and less than uh eight hundreds of a second. I'm sure they have

some pretty super cool slow now, yeah, they do for sure. Well, but since you mentioned the tongue though, because uh it isn't anchor in the back of their mouths, they can't use the tongue to push food down. So when a frog eats that there, they also don't have like a jaw that they can chew like you would think, you know, like humans do. Um, so they just swallow it in a couple of gulps. And they actually, since you can't use their tongue, they use their eyeballs their eyes sink

into the skull to push food down. So I just have to ask Chuck, where do frogs stand in relation to jellyfish? And OCTOPI. Now wow, um, not ahead of those two? Okay, so third, fourth, fifth, seventeen. Well, if we're talking all animals, um, I don't know where to rank them, but we're talking crazy stuff, you should know animals. I would go with number three for now. Okay. Uh. And on those eyes, they have what's called a ah

nictitating is that right? Nictitating membrane. So you've probably seen when frogs or toads go to dive under water, they have a film like, uh, what's the other animal that does that? It seems like we talked about that, we have a film that covers the eye. I think alligators probably. Oh that sounds about right. I think that's right, yeah, which would make sense because alligators are reptiles yea, and

these guys are somewhat related to reptiles. Al Right, So that's a lot of initial frog stuff body frog body stuff. So let's take a break. Uh, let's talk a little bit more about frog body stuff. All right, all right, dude, so we're back. Let's we're about to talk about frogs getting it uh well quickly though, we never mentioned the ears. Oh yeah, that's a big one. You probably notice that frogs don't have these big funny ears that stick off

their head. They do have ears, they're just not external. That would be hilarious. They just said a little they did, that would be funny. They just had a little, uh, tympanum, the little ear drum behind each eye. Yeah, and you can, apparently if you know what you're doing. And most frog species tell whether a frog is a male or a female based on the size of their tympanum to their eyeball. In a male, I think the tympanum is bigger than the eye, and in a female it's either about the

same size or smaller. So there you go. Now you know frogs. And finally, we would be remiss without talking about the vocal sack because frogs and toads are are most known, at least to me, for that great, great sound they make in the evening time in the American South and all over the world. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. So you know, like you've seen pictures and video of frogs, like the skin under their chin just suddenly turns into

a huge bubble. So what they're doing right then is they're taking in a tremendous amount of air and they're holding it in their vocals are in their air sack, right, and they're moving it, keeping it in their their air sack. They're not releasing it, but they're moving it around across their vocal cords. And that's what makes like the ribbit sound or the croaking or the trilling sound. And it's

pretty awesome. Um. And one of the reasons why they're making those sounds, or at least one of the sounds, is they're attracting a mate right there talking to one another. They're saying, hey, what do you think? Yeah, And that sound can be everything from a croak to a ribbit to like, there's this I don't know, there may be more than one species, but there's this one. I've heard this summer that sounds and I've heard people call the police because it sounds like a child that's in danger.

Can you do an impression of it? No, I wish I could. It's just super loud and it sounds like a child that's hurt. It's like a screaming sound. Oh, I've not heard of that one. Oh man, it's crazy sounding. Wow. Yeah, Well, I'll send you a link a bit, sure, there's a YouTube recording or something. It's like peacock's going, hell, it's off putting in there, and still say that to this day because of you, because we got a neighborhood peacock

that I've talked about, so, Chuck. When frogs are making these mating calls, right, yes, they're saying, hey, baby, how's it going? Um? And the frog might come over, or the male frog might say, I like your look, I'm gonna climb on top of you. How about that? And there's actually because frogs are in a lot of cases not not sexually dimorphic, like you can't visually tell the difference between a male and a female frog of that species.

Apparently that extends not just to us humans, but to frogs as well, because there's a something called a release call to where if male frog has mounted another male frog, the male frog that's been mounted, we'll have a release call saying like I'm a dude, buddy, um, keep looking. Yeah. Actually they've actually recorded that sound in uh nature. Oh yeah, And I think it's something like well wha, wha, wha, whoa right right, like you as a friend, so the

frog will move on. It's funny that like they they get confused just from looking as well, and that it takes like a reactive process to handle that. You know. Yeah, it's called amplexus, which is the position that they're in. Yeah, that's the mounting position. Yeah, and the male literally gets on the back and class the four legs around the lady frog's middle and they can stay there for days

like that however long. It's pretty much um, it's just a sensual seduction basically just waiting for the female to release her eggs and um. As far as reproduction goes, and this is something that we all learned about when we were little kids with frogs with the tadpoles where we'll get into that, but the general rule of fun with most is that they're all sexual reproducers, and all frogs and toads will be hatched from an egg. Depending on how they come out, there's big differences to like

most I don't even want to say most. I saw somewhere like half of frogs come out fully formed, just super small, that's adorable, the all bet um. The other say half come out as tadpoles. And that's the one that like every little kid knows about. It's it's frog

reproductive biology, right. Yeah, And depending on the species, they can do crazy adaptive things, like there's one species that incubates, like the female frog clears out her belly and then and incubates the eggs and it's belly for the whole time, and the frog is born out of her mouth. Essentially, she's like, go forth. Uh, there's another one where because we always, you know, have been saying that moisture is

super important to their survival. Um, there are some that if they're in very dry areas, the daddy frog, well I think it's a daddy frogger is either one of them, it's the dad. From what I understand that the dad, the dad will pee on the eggs, right to keep them wet. That's the I think the strawberry poison dart

frog does that. And um, after they hatch into tabholes, the mom apparently carries them on her back two little pools of water that are collected in like a plant, right, and each one gets its own little pool of water and that cute. Yeah, And I didn't know this, but they can hatch and grow in like a regular full body of water like a ake. But I think the process is just a lot slower there than it is the temporary pool. Yeah, so like like a rain pool or something like that, um, or just just a huge

puddle that's developed. It's going to be much faster because they have less time to work with. Right, Yeah, I couldn't figure it out. Is that the deal? Yeah, that's what I understand. So, um, they're there, um, developmental processes accelerated. But again there's you can't just say this is how it is for all frogs. There's differences with all of them. Um. But for the most part, ones that are hatched from

eggs as tadpoles will start to eat. And again, some are born with teeth which I can't even imagine how small those teeth are. Um, and might be herbivores or they might be omnivores. Others are herbivores. But frogs grow up to be carnivores I believe, right, But they start out as tadpoles. Is vegetarians in a lot of cases. Yeah, so they start eating a bit. The metaphor morphosis is taking shape. Um. As we all saw in on the film strip in elementary school, little back legs start to grow. Uh,

their little internal organs start to change. They get their tiny little lungs, they get their little digestive system going, and then that tail just shrinks and shrinks and eventually just is absorbed into the body. Yeah. And as their tail is shrinking, their front legs are growing and their digestive system is altering itself from in plant based diet to a meat based diet. And then they leave land.

And when they leave land, they're considered a froglet I guess, until their tail fully goes away, and then they're a frog and they say rip it, they do, and then they say, I'm hungry. I want to eat some insects, and I want to try to avoid be eaten by something bigger than me. Yeah, So they eat a really surprising range of things. They'll eat insects obviously, flying insects, mosquitoes, flies, grasshoppers. They also eat worms, snakes, mice, baby turtles, other frogs.

Delete it all. They'll cannibalize one or another, which, if you think you know it's so wrong, cannibalism is just so wrong. It's actually a pretty easy and low hanging fruit check on like overpopulation, Like if the species police is itself re polices its own population, that's actually pretty smart. Really, it's still dreadful, Like over there head had twenty four little baby froglets. I'm kind of hungry. Yeah, and some apparently some tadpoles, the ones that will eat meat or

um vegetable vegetation bill eat other tadpoles too. Oh really that young? Yeah man, I know they started. I'm young, so um, I just talked about avoid being eaten. Their frogs are very famous for having some pretty advanced defense mechanisms. Um. A lot of times it's just all show, like they'll be super brightly colored or the the fore ied frong the uh well, I was gonna say the scientific name, but why bother right? I practiced, Okay, the physillamous netterary

very nice. It sounded much better when I practiced, well, because what you do is you say it like that once and then the second time you say it just like it's in your vocabulary four or five times. There you go. Yeah, but you have to do it like right in a row, you know what I mean, Like say it again physilamous neterary. I think you just do it with a little pizzazuh So anyway, that's the forrid frog, and that's the dude that has spots on its back that look like eyes near the back legs and to

a predator. They're like, I don't like the looks of that thing, even though it's just for show. Yeah, if which is kind of weird because if you look at it, it just looks like a frog going one or or the other. I don't know what's intimidating about. Maybe that's what's scary, Like, I don't know which way that dude's gonna jump. I guess so he's going forward, he's going backward. Um, A lot of frogs will use color, Like I was like, what is the the evolutionary adaptation of bright bright colors

for frogs? It doesn't make any sense. Apparently they do that to basically advertise to predators, Hey man, I'm super poisonous. You do not want to eat me. Yeah, it could be a fluke or fake. I mean I've heard enough about that though that if I was traveling in like the Amazon and I saw a bright blue frog, I wouldn't kiss that guy. No, that's a poison dart tree frog. Well, that's the other thing I was talking about the show. You know a lot of this for show, but a

lot of it isn't. Some frogs have very highly concentrated toxins that like the poison dart frog, like you said, and and those dudes are it can be harmful to the touch to a human. Yeah, you can absorb that that toxin through your skin. Uh. And apparently they make this toxin by collecting it from ants that they eat. They eat like poisonous ants, and the the toxic alkaloids from the ants own toxin accumulates in these storage glands in the frog but doesn't affect the frog. But brother,

it's gonna affect you. Yeah. So even that same if you have a poisoned dart frog that's been raised in captivity and not fed those ants, I think it might have a little toxicity, but nothing like the real deal. I think that's how they found out there. Like, oh wait a minute, this doesn't make any sense. Why would they become less toxic? And I've been looking this guy in the cage. It's nothing born right, So let's let's take a break, our last break, chuck, and then we're

going to come back because we have more to say. Okay, dude, so we talked um briefly about you mentioned how they need water, like water is essential the frogs throughout their their life process. Right. This is one of the things that makes them really fragile um. In some cases, they're fragile because there are places where they may run out of water. Their wire supply might dry up, and that

would be really bad for a frog. Beca is not only does a frog get a lot of its water um through its skin, uh, it gets some of its oxygen and does carbon dioxide and oxygen exchange in large

part through its skin as well. Right, So it for all of this stuff to happen, it needs to be wet um, which means that if the water that they're coming in contact with, since they're so permeable and they take in that water so readily, if there's stuff present in the water like toxins or pollution or something like that, it's going to affect the frogs as well. And since the frog species are fairly fragile um as far as as species go, they're kind of like the glass Joe

of the Animal Kingdom. Remember him from Mike Tyson's punch Out, The first Guy You'd Fight? I never played that? What I never played? Punch Out? You never did? Man, that was a great game. I'm gonna I'm not gonna do my patented thing. What which is I can't believe you never played that? Yeah, I don't think I had that system. What system was that on the original Nintendo? Yeah, I never owned one. I had various roommates with those, so I was sort of subject to whatever games they liked.

I never played Zelda either, you know, I was never into Zelda either. I like Metroid, though, I don't think I played that. All right. We played a lot of Super Mario Brothers. So yeah, that was so good. Yeah, um, well Glass Joe. Yeah, that's right. So so that's what frogs are. They're basically like a really fragile group to begin with, but if you start contributing to their demise through pollution and stuff, that's gonna pick up much more rapidly.

And we're starting to see that, right, Yeah. I mean that's I often rant about not using chemicals in my yard, and that's it's not just because I have dogs, but it's you know, runoff from that stuff affects everything around my house. And that's just on a small level. Yeah, you see it in a large scale with you know, huge farms that use pesticides and insecticides, and that affects the local ecosystem as a whole. That's right, and it

kind of gets across. If you have like those sewers where they stencil spray paint like a fish or something that says goes to to wetlands or a stream or something like that. I think that's really effective. I think they should put that on all sewers basically. Yeah, or maybe even a sign so you don't have to be walking over it to see it. Yeah, there you go, like when you're driving by, or just make it common knowledge. I think people know that, but they need reminders. Yeah,

I think they need too. So that's one threat to frogs because of man. Another one is well, people eating and hunting frogs to eat. Yep, they try and raise them on farms, but uh, it's not the easiest thing to have a frog farm. Apparently now they'll hop out of there. So hunting and capturing frogs to put on the menu in some parts of the world's a very big so they're in steep decline in those places. Have you ever eaten frogs? I have had frog legs before.

It's been a long time and it won't happen again. I um used to as a kid go to this dinner theater in I think Grand Rapids, Michigan is where it was, and on the buffet they always had frog's legs, and I would eat piles of frogs legs as like a seven eight year old kid. It was really crazy how adventurous I was. Right, I would do anything to have a videotape of that. And um, like I got fat off a frog's legs. That's tough to do. So

I I wonder now if I would like them. But that's not to be because one of you May's greatest fears in the world is being anywhere near a frog. One of her top phobias as frogs, just in general, everything about frogs. So there's zero chance. There's actually a negative chance that I will ever be able to eat a frog leg again, at least with her around. I'll have to fly up to Grand Rapids myself. That'll be your big dirty marital secret. Right where have you been?

But we have in Detroit. So the frogs, that's I've heard of that before. I think, Uh, you haven't, No, I have. I mean, I'm sure every animal out there has someone who's afraid of it. Sure, but um, yeah, I didn't know that frogs I'm like, it's good to know. Yeah, Like you mean, what do you think of this? Like, I know not to do that. That's good if you chuck, I wish I thought of that before I've done it. Um.

One of the other big threats to frogs is global warming. Um. They are ectothermic animals, so they that means they rely on the environment to control their body temperature. They don't have the internal regulation. So if it's hot outside, the frog gets hot, and um, if it's cold, they get cold. In case of in the case of the wood frog, they live north of the Arctic Circle and they can free This is remarkable. They can freeze up to its body in the wintertime to protect itself from damage, and

then they thaw themselves out again in the spring. But that didn't help you if if it's too hot, well that's when you amelia estivate when it's too hot. But this is like, this is just a few species that are capable of of hibernating and estivating like this. For the most part, frogs need because their ectothermic, they need a pretty stable temperature. And from what I saw, um

even worse than high temperatures for frogs. That's associated with um global warming are temperature swings, like big swings and temperature are really hard on frog populations, and that they think that's one reason why frogs have been declining. But from that one study that really established like there two species that we've lost since the seventies. The guy who lead the sellers like, I can't say why. I have no idea. He's like, it's probably this is probably, this

is probably this, it's all these different things. But he said the thing that really made him nervous was that it was happening all over the world, but he didn't think it was just climate change or just global warming that was doing it. One of the other things that frog's face that they know all about but are having a tough time dealing with is a kind of fungus called kittred or kitrid which one did you come up with? Pronunciation kitrid? But it could be either I guess the

h y trid. Uh. And that's the fungus that feeds on carratin, which we've talked about before. That's um didn't That is what's in our fingernails, yeah, or your hair. Yeah. Basically makes skin tough and sturdy, uh, And little tadpoles just have a little bit of that stuff around their mouths. But when they grow the parts that are most often in contact with the ground like that, they're little cute, little soft bellies. Or the soles of their feet, they're

delicious feet. Now, can just think of you me just like or skin crawling, like listening to this thing. Yeah, I don't know if I should have should have told everybody that one that's like her Achilles heel. Yeah. Uh So as this stuff comes in contact with the ground more, they um, they get that build up to where just they need tougher skin down there. Yeah. So, and that's that's where this fungus will take root, right because that

tougher skin is made of keratin. Right, So since the fungus feeds on it, they're like, oh, well, it's gonna kill a frog. But they don't actually know the mechanism by which the frog dies from the kite kitrid. So what you said, that's what I said. They think that possibly it is that the fungus releases toxin, maybe that the frog takes in through its skin, or that it inhibits that gas exchange of oxygen for carbon dioxide on the frog's skin. But those are just a couple of

hypotheses there there. They still have no idea. They just know it's killing frogs, and it's killing them fast. And the reason why it's spreading so well, they've traced it back to the African clawed toad. Yeah, which it doesn't have a poor effect on them, but they can spread it to other frogs and it's those have become an invasive species in a lot of areas. Yeah, because their pets and people release frogs as pets when they're no

longer puppies, which is something you should not do. No, no, no, no, They're like, that's the frogs take over really really quickly. Remember we UM did an episode and will Toads Give You Warts? Uh, and we talked about the cane toad and how it's just taken over Australia. Um frog populations, as fragile as they are, can also as an invasive species. Just boom right. Yeah. They also were ubiquitous because for decades, starting in ninety, they were the fastest way to tell

if you were pregnant. Oh, cane toads. No, uh, the African claude toad. Did you know about that? I don't think, so, oh, well, a lot on me. You're ready. Back in the day, if you were a woman who wanted to know you're pregnant,

you would go to your doctor. Your doctor would take a urine sample and send it off, and at a lab they would take a sample of your urine injected into a rabbit, and then they would kill the rabbit, cut the rabbit open, and inspect it's ovaries to see if it had reacted to a hormone that shows up only in pregnant women, human choreonic gonata trope in right, Yeah, which I've I've heard of that, Okay, So I guess it would be hCG is present in the urine of

pregnant women, and you can tell very early on if a woman is pregnant from the presence of it. But they had the most roundabout way of all time to find out to detect the presence of it. Well, enter the African Claude toad, where this researcher with the name of get this Lancelot hog bent thought to inject a toad with it, and the toad stays alive, just releases eggs or sperm. If there is hcd G present in the woman's urine, So that for decades, Chuck was how

you would tell if you were pregnant. They would somebody in a lab somewhere would inject your urine into a frog to see if they released sperm or eggs. Crazy, and then they'd say, mozle top, Yeah, that is nuts. Uh. You mentioned the kane toade in Australia, which we did talk about a little bit, but they there's a great documentary, very classic documentary from the late eighties I think was it seventies, I think it's eighties about the cane toad uh.

One of the all time classic docs. If you haven't seen, you should check that out. But cane toads are very famously brought over in nine uh. And this it just seems like it always goes this way when someone says, hey, let's bring in this to handle this, uh, even though nature hasn't, it always goes wrong. It seems like. So they brought these cane toads over to uh take care of the scare of beetle. But then once they got over here, they were the scarabs are eating the sugar

cane crops um. They realized that these big fat cane toads couldn't jump high enough to get to the beatles for the most part, and so they all of a sudden, we're just there and they reproduce like bunny rabbits, and so before you know it, Australia very famously you had a cane toad problem, and I think still does right. Oh yeah, yeah, it's big. They were advancing towards Sydney or Perth or some large city, um, just ruining crop

land and on the way. Yeah, they have a huge problem still as far as I know, I just saw one recent thing. I don't know if it's still the case, but I think they found some ant that will kill these cane toads. They're called meat ants. It sounds like something of a horror movie. Yeah, that does sound pretty bad. But I don't know if that's still the case. But I do know that Australia has spent a lot of

money over the years trying to control the cane toads. Yeah, um, and yeah, as far as I know, they still have a huge problem with it. Maybe, Josh, we will see some In two thousand eighteen when we fingers Crossed visit Australia to do live shows that will be great. We're gonna go catch a couple and at least get a couple out of Australia's hair while we're there. Yeah, so that that is sort of a pre announcement. Hopefully we're gonna be hitting Australia New Zealand next year. Oh is

that what you were doing? Yeah? If everything goes well, that is the plan. Okay, yeah, No, I'm pretty psyched about it. I just have to find some good pills to get me through that flight. So I'll tell you what you could do for the flight back. You could take one of those cane toads, squeeze it and then lick the secretions. Yeah. So that's a real thing. If you've heard, hey we're licking frogs, uh, make me hallucinate.

That is actually a real thing. And there are um in the eighties the Australian government and this doesn't just happen Australia. Uh, they have outlawed kane toad secretion under the Drug Misuse Act. And there's another chemical called buphot nine that is in the US a controlled substance. Yeah, from the Colorado River toad. And you can own a Colorado River toad. But buddy you better not lick it because that is illegal. Yes, so what do you do?

You um, squeeze the paratoid glands behind the ear drums. There'll be an oozy, milky substance that leaks out, and then you can either lick it right there or you can collect it, dry it, and smoke it. And here's the thing, like, don't do that. No, do not do that, not just because it's illegal it's a controlled substance, but because you have no idea how toxic that that chemical is, how potent it is. You can't you can't control the dosage, and so if you overdose you you will probably suffer

cardiac arrest and die. And there's no way for you to know whether you're going to trip because this stuff has like a UM. It's from the same family as d M t die methyl lethamine at atlantamine. Man practice that one too, but d M t UM it's in the same family. So it will either make you trip or it will kill you. And there's no way for you to tell ahead of time. So there's really no

reason whatsoever for you to be licking toads. Your uncle Josh and your uncle Chuck are telling you straight out, don't lick toads, agreed, And yet people have been doing it since at the very least eleven fifty b C. They found archaeological evidence pointing to South American Indian tribes, uh looking frogs, the Colorado River toad and of course it's in Colorado, right exactly. Like Yeah, man, I'm gonna christen these new hiking boots by into these new sweet basques.

All right, what else you got? I got nothing else? That's frogs. That was a long one. Yeah, we haven't done a good old fashioned animal episode in a long time. I know I missed it. Um. Well, if you want to know more about frogs and toads, ts, because there's nothing more to know. But you can support Tracy V. Wilson by going and reading this article on how Stuff Works dot com. You can also go check out her work on Stuff you Missed in History Class that great podcast, agreed.

And since I said stuff you missed in History class, it's time for a listener mail. I'm gonna call this the secondary follow up to the Satanas Satanist episode, and this will probably the last one when we read. Just listen to your show on Anton Laveay and Satanism. Guys. It's a former leader of a secular interest group. I'm embarrassed to say I've never heard of him until your show. It's hard to believe. Yeah, it is. I've always believed that the best way to show how absurd religious endorsement

is is taking it to its logical conclusion. Although the Flying Spaghetti Monster demonstrates this through parity, I have no idea there was a group who was demonstrating this through practice. I believe secularism is a good thing for everyone, including my Christian friends. Although I think Satan is a dubious hero to champion secularism for the mere reason of the

knee jerk reaction to the name Satan. I am not at all opposed to the Church of Satan's idea to hold up a mirror to those working on religious establishment. I want to say thank you for faithfully reporting on people like Satanists. It's try to argue the position when you stand to gain something from your position. You guys have the advantage of reaching people while their guard is down, and you used it to challenge their views on something

as unequivocally evil sounding and Satanist. I very well made become a secret Satanist after your podcast Take the Plunge with Me, chuck uh And that is from Travis Romero. Well thanks a lot, Travis. If you want to get in touch with us like Travis did, you can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast or join us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email the Stuff podcast at how stuff Works dot com and has always joined us at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know

dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, is that how stuff Works dot com