In my last blog entry Herpetology i mentioned about a journal I've created of the history of all my pet frogs and toads. i mentioned the specific things i wrote about such as their age, what they ate, looked like, and when i found them. i have decided to now keep blog entry's of my journal notes and tell my readers more about the world of amphibians. i will write to you about my own personal pets and what made them so special to me and/or i will i tell you the history about their breeds.
I will begin writing about my top favorite stories of my past pet toads and frogs that i can tell you now were all found out in the wild. Some of my stories will involve midnight walks on train tracks, cow grates, hikes in the forest, and some will even be located out off state. Some of my present day pets are store bought just for the cause of needed adoption. One blog I'm very excited writing to you about is an exotic unknown species of frog/toad (still unsure) that i once had would have originally cost me $800 and a legal licence just to keep her.
Herpetologist write journals entry's for everything they find fascinating to them within their field. These blog entry's will be a great exercise for me to my future career in Herp. Keep updated every week on my new blog entry's. i hope you will enjoy reading them just as mush as i enjoyed writing them.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Herpetologist
Herpetology is a very unknown study in the zoology branch. Its refers to the study of reptiles and amphibians, Herp the Latin word referring to "the creeping animal". It may seem like an usual pick for a career field but knowing that I myself have grown up with the slimy, warty, and scaly little creatures all my life that it would be a perfect match for me. Though i do love all kinds of snakes, lizards, and turtles my passion is mainly focused on the amphibian world. When i was 10 years old i even began to keep journal entry's of every toad and frog I've ever kept. I would label them if they were stored bought or wild, their scientific breeds, when i found them and when they passed away, how they died, how long did i keep them, what their main diet was, the color patterns on their skin, and even their personality.
People mainly call me a liar for believing that a frog or toad even has a personality but for every record i kept could be enough proof for anyone. Some of my toads have a humorous appetite going after anything that moves, some to swallowing the ornament of a wind chime or even attempting to eat their own feet. Some of my toads are calm and relaxed, happy just to cuddle between the warmth of my fingers in my hand. People also have a hard time signifying the difference between a frog and toad. Frogs are known as Rana, Latin for "the aquatic webbed foot". Frogs spend most of their lives in the water but can live on land as well. They have smooth slimy skin and perform a symphony of colors. Toads (Bufo) on the other hand spend the majority of their lives on land, only step foot in water for a drink. They have a warty dry skin and can even be used as a leather textile. Because their home is mainly of land the majority of most toads you would find in North America would be the simple shades of browns and grays to blend in (camouflage) to the forest floors to hide from predators. Most frogs want to be seen by their predators, like the poisonous dart frogs for instance. Their skins put on beautiful show of neon's and all the other colors of the rainbow that easily stand out. These unusual colors tell their predators; such as birds and snakes; that they are extremely deadly and and if you eat them you will die.
Herpetologist doesn't just study the difference between a frog and toad but they study with their life styles and what we humans can do to save them, in fact they are now dealing with one of the greatest amphibious holocausts we have ever came to known. Recent studies show that just within this past decade one third of the entire amphibian population have been wiped out and it all thanks to us humans. Our homes and cities are tearing down the swamps and ponds, forests and jungles that originally belonged to the frogs, toads and other wild animals. And if this isn't enough we have now poisoned the water systems with our wastes creating a new disease called Chytrid spreading all over our world, even in places where a house is rare to come across to. The rivers and streams are the tiny veins of the earth making it extremely easy for this deadly plague to spread and the one place that is getting hit the hardest is the tiny strip of Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica. Panama and Costa Rica are the homes to one of the most beautiful and apparently sacred toad in the world; the Golden Toad. It appears to look like a solid golden frog due to its smooth skin; the males are golden as well but have these unusual black spotted pattern; though in fact they are toads due to most of its life spent on land. Millions of these toads used to walk the jungle floors and sang like tiny high pitched trembling whistles in the night. But when the hazardous Chytrid hit in their water streams, the jungles went completely silent. Now the only places you would ever see the Golden Toad would be held in captivity but Herpetologist are currently working for a break-through cure in dreams that someday soon they would return back to the wild.
So technically speaking i want to be a doctor specializing in frogs and toads. My dream in to receive my Herp major and eventually go down to Panama jungles and fight back for these magnificent frogs lives. For all frogs and toads in the world to give back their freedom from the plague and hopefully someday myslef hear the Golden Toad sing their song.
People mainly call me a liar for believing that a frog or toad even has a personality but for every record i kept could be enough proof for anyone. Some of my toads have a humorous appetite going after anything that moves, some to swallowing the ornament of a wind chime or even attempting to eat their own feet. Some of my toads are calm and relaxed, happy just to cuddle between the warmth of my fingers in my hand. People also have a hard time signifying the difference between a frog and toad. Frogs are known as Rana, Latin for "the aquatic webbed foot". Frogs spend most of their lives in the water but can live on land as well. They have smooth slimy skin and perform a symphony of colors. Toads (Bufo) on the other hand spend the majority of their lives on land, only step foot in water for a drink. They have a warty dry skin and can even be used as a leather textile. Because their home is mainly of land the majority of most toads you would find in North America would be the simple shades of browns and grays to blend in (camouflage) to the forest floors to hide from predators. Most frogs want to be seen by their predators, like the poisonous dart frogs for instance. Their skins put on beautiful show of neon's and all the other colors of the rainbow that easily stand out. These unusual colors tell their predators; such as birds and snakes; that they are extremely deadly and and if you eat them you will die.
Herpetologist doesn't just study the difference between a frog and toad but they study with their life styles and what we humans can do to save them, in fact they are now dealing with one of the greatest amphibious holocausts we have ever came to known. Recent studies show that just within this past decade one third of the entire amphibian population have been wiped out and it all thanks to us humans. Our homes and cities are tearing down the swamps and ponds, forests and jungles that originally belonged to the frogs, toads and other wild animals. And if this isn't enough we have now poisoned the water systems with our wastes creating a new disease called Chytrid spreading all over our world, even in places where a house is rare to come across to. The rivers and streams are the tiny veins of the earth making it extremely easy for this deadly plague to spread and the one place that is getting hit the hardest is the tiny strip of Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica. Panama and Costa Rica are the homes to one of the most beautiful and apparently sacred toad in the world; the Golden Toad. It appears to look like a solid golden frog due to its smooth skin; the males are golden as well but have these unusual black spotted pattern; though in fact they are toads due to most of its life spent on land. Millions of these toads used to walk the jungle floors and sang like tiny high pitched trembling whistles in the night. But when the hazardous Chytrid hit in their water streams, the jungles went completely silent. Now the only places you would ever see the Golden Toad would be held in captivity but Herpetologist are currently working for a break-through cure in dreams that someday soon they would return back to the wild.
So technically speaking i want to be a doctor specializing in frogs and toads. My dream in to receive my Herp major and eventually go down to Panama jungles and fight back for these magnificent frogs lives. For all frogs and toads in the world to give back their freedom from the plague and hopefully someday myslef hear the Golden Toad sing their song.
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