The Amphibian Foundation's Frog Blog

The frog tongue is a high-speed adhesive Alexis Noel , Georgia Institute of Technology , David Hu , Georgia Institute of Technology and Mark Mandica , The Amphibian Foundation How does one get stuck studying frog tongues? Our study into the sticky, slimy world of frogs all began with a humorous video of a real African bullfrog lunging at fake insects in a mobile game. This frog was clearly an expert at gaming; the speed and accuracy of its tongue could rival the thumbs of texting teenagers. The frog that was the genesis of the authors’ tongue research. Further YouTube research yielded amazing videos of frogs eating mice , tarantulas and even other frogs . The versatile frog tongue can grab wet, hairy and slippery surfaces with equal ease. It does a lot better than our engineered adhesives – not even household tapes can firmly stick to wet or dusty surfaces. What makes this tongue even more impressive is its speed: Over 4,000 species of...

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Gabe Andrle and Tessa Cafritz joined the Amphibian Foundation as interns from Emory. Gabe is holding two Boa constrictors (One Belem, one Argentine) and Tessa has Princess, our amphibian ambassador, a Giant Toad ( Rhinella marina )

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Sonya came to see the new labs at the foundation and talk about Atlanta amphibian monitoring. She is leading a Cobb County Frog Call Workshop on March 14th - register for free by following this link .

Pierson Hill, Biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission displaying 12 egg clutches of many he and his team saved from desiccation in the field. Apalachicola NF did not receive the necessary seasonal rainfall to inundate the eggs naturally, so the eggs were found, collected and most will be part of an experimental assisted-metamorphosis program at ANF. Almost 100 eggs were transported to the Amphibian Foundation for rearing into the captive breeding program

via Instagram http://ift.tt/2jncKjs Since I met my first Pipa pipa ( Suriname Toad ) I have been completely enamored with this species. Their huge flat bodies, their bizarre courting, breeding and reproductive behavior, the fact that tiny Pipas pop out of mom’s back — the list goes on and on — Right down to the wackadoodle star-shaped fingertip lobes on each of the creepy fingers. Using SEM, one can see that each lobe of the star-shaped lobes branches out into 4 more star-shaped lobes — and so on, and so on — maximizing the surface area for still yet unknown reasons. They definitely use their fingers to detect prey — you can observe them rooting around in the substrate locating food — but are there receptors at the ends of these lobes? Are they chemoreceptive? Gustatory? Electroreceptive? … fascinating. Pipids lack tongues and teeth! They capture and transport prey through a mechanism called suction feeding. As the name implies, suction feeders engulf prey with the surrounding...

Children and campers at the Blue Heron Nature Preserve have been thrilled with a new addition from The Amphibian Foundation — an Axolotl ( Ambystoma mexicanum ) named Armie! An axolotl is a type of salamander from Central America. They are nearly extinct in the wild, but are thriving in captive collections. Some of them are brown speckled (wild type). Others, like the one pictured here are leucistic (or lacking much of the pigment). There are many interesting things about axolotls (other than the inherent coolness about being a salamander). As you can see from the picture, Armie's left arm is backwards. He grew up that way, but axolotls can regrow their limbs! If Armie's deformation occured by an injury or trauma during early development, then there is a good chance his arm would grow back properly if it was removed. However, if his arm is backwards due to genetic mutation, then it would most likely regrow exactly as it is. Either way, we are not going to try that experim...

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Reigning Reptiles in Buford led (and owned) by Cyndi Moore is our newest partner and a huge supporter of The Amphibian Foundation. Besides being the only legit reptile shop in the greater Atlanta area, today they donated a large number of cool, rare, unique and impressive reptiles and amphibians for both our captive breeding and educational programs. Here is a beautiful and sweet Argentine Boa, Boa contrictor occidentalis donated by Reigning Reptiles on the Amphibian Foundation's logo of Anthony shirt. The exterior of Reigning Reptiles is awesome! Cyndi, owner of Reigning Reptiles spending some quality time with 'Princess' a glorious Cane Toad ( Rhinella marina ) that was donated to The Amphibian Foundation. Princess will be a wonderful ambassador for amphibian conservation. Giant Leaf-tail Gecko - an incredible species I had never seen before today at Reigning Reptiles. This animal was not for sale. Crystal, VP of The Amphibian Foundation holding ou...

via Instagram http://ift.tt/2hLqLtC  must have been bored with me trying to photograph him. What might look like an act of fangy aggression, is actually just him yawning. Copperheads, and all snakes are here for a reason! They are fulfilling an important role in our ecosystem, and they just want to be left alone so they can do it. It’s your right to kill any snake on your property, but we urge people to use our Translocation Program as an alternative to killing the snake. If you choose to exercise your right to kill snakes on your property, you then relinquish your right to complain about rodent infestations and lime disease, both of which are controlled naturally by snakes. So far, 3 of the 31 calls we have received have actually been Copperheads. The majority have been Water Snakes (Nerodia sp.) and Brown Snakes (Storeria decayi). Often we are sent pictures of these poor harmless snakes with their heads already cut off. No doubt, snakes freak people out — but they are fascina...

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