Tracking the Vanishing Frogs
Tracking the Vanishing Frogs: An Ecological Mystery by Kathryn Phillips is the compilation of Kathryn Phillip's journeys and stories told to her by those who she observed. The book chronicles the fieldwork, lab work, and amphibian research of several dozen scientists. However, I feel that the book mainly focuses on five scientists. Those five scientists are Mark Jennings, a native Californian, who's main work focuses on the California red-legged frog and other native amphibian species of California. His partner, and long time fieldwork partner is Marc Hayes. Long time associates, Mark and Marc now both worked together in an attempt to get the California red-legged frog listed as an endangered species. The other pair of herpetologists have worked mainly on finding reasons behind the disappearance of the Golden toad of Costa Rica as well as the Harlequin Frog. These two scientists are Alan Pounds and Martha Crump. The fifth scientist, and the only one that manages to accomplish his goals alone is Sam Sweet. Sam's main goal in life is to protect the two streams in California that are still home Arroyo toad. The two streams are in a National Reserve and they are completely unaffected by non-indigenous species. They are the
The main purpose of this book is clear just from reading the title of the book. The purpose is to inform and forewarn people of the "vanishing frogs." The frogs are disappearing for just about every reason from pollution, global warming, habitat destruction, weather variations, and every other possible reason down to cattle grazing. The author feels that the disappearing amphibians, having the potential to be a keystone or warning species, could be a possible warning for the future that other animals could be in danger, even possibly humans. "Declining amphibians, they said, are like miner's canaries, early warnings, of impending disaster" (211). The main question in the book that Kathryn Phillips tries to answer is simply put, why are many of the amphibians native to different states disappearing. However, there are several other minor questions that Kathryn Phillips also tries to answer. For example throughout the description of Mark Jennings and Marc Hayes attempts to find sources of the disappearance of the California red-legged frogs as well as why it is such a difficult objective to get any amphibians onto the endangered species list. The collaboration of Mark Jennings and Marc Hayes in their proposal to add the California red-legged frog to the endangered species list was the first successful amphibian addition to the list. Another minor question was why there are no shipping laws for shipping amphibians as pets or food internationally. This issue was most obviously discussed with the international shipping check-in with the United States Fish and Wildlife service. "You get them frozen, squished, dehydrated. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has written humane transport regulations for mammals and birds that specify exactly how the animals must be packed to protect them from injury or death. Humane transport regulations for reptiles and amphibians are on the agency's agenda, but it is hard to tell when it will get done, because there are so many other tasks that are considered of higher priority" (84). In addition to this there are several mentions of early depletio
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1416
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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