frog populations

Over the past few years there has been a decline in frog populations. Only now are people starting to care about whats going on. You may be surprised, but there really are many reasons to save this special species. But before we can save them we need to understand more about them, and what the cause of their depletion at such an alarming rate is. Some people may ask Who cares about frogs? Well, one of the reasons is that they are an important part of our ecology. They prey on insects and other pests, keeping them from overpopulating and ruining various habitats. They are also an important source of food to other animals such as birds, snakes, and other mammals. If you take them out of the food chain you could cause serious imbalance in the ecosystem and therefore cause the decline in other populations of other organisms. This circle of life is precious and fragile, and must be preserved. It has been said that frogs are a measure of the environments health. Frogs are natural survivors. They lived through the last two extinction episodes including, the end of the dinosaur era. So something is terribly wrong for them to be dying off now. It is similar to the practice of keeping canaries in a mineshaft. If the shaft or world starts getting polluted then the canaries or frogs will start dying off, therefore sen! ding a warning signal. Like a shock wave it will ripple across the world leaving a disturbance throughout its path. Whos to say that we might someday be next (Gibbons 1)? Another reason to care for frogs is for biomedical research. Just like lab rats, they are tested for the use of many chemicals, disease research, and plain anatomy and physiology lessons, not to mention to gain knowledge of their population decline. If they were to suddenly vanish, we would not be completely sure of the cause. Hopefully, we can find out the reasons why theyre dying. Maybe then we ca...