Extinct? Hop! Hop! No Way!
Extinct? No one had seen one for 50 years! And then hop! hop! hop! the cute critter came hopping back into visibility! It was found at the Hula Nature Reserve by ranger Yoram Malka from Nature and National Parks Authority of Israel. And now there are six frogs!
In fact, after 50 years of so-called "extinction" in Israel's Hula Nature Reserve, it was formally declared extinct. Yet despite its obituary, Israeli animal conservationists and herpetologists never gave up hope.
Some of them, including researcher Sarig Gafni, believed the frog was in hiding and even went on scouting missions on their days off. Over the years, they looked under stones, combed through the reeds and carried their nets while on army reserve duty.
In November, their dreams came true when a small female Hula painted frog was spotted. An international media flurry ensued, bringing scientists from abroad on flights to Israel to see for themselves.
Gafni, an ecologist at the Ruppin Academic Center School of Marine Sciences, joked that he is the world's record-holder for having handled the greatest number of the painted frog -- all six of them. "All were found about 200 meters apart in a very limited area. We found three males, one female and two juveniles who are less than one year old."
Sadly, he reports, one of the sextet had to be euthanized because it had been badly injured by a bird trying to eat it. It is now preserved for study in the new Garden for Zoological Research at Tel Aviv University.
Overall, however, the find is a victory for the frog, whose Latin name is Discoglossus nigriventer, and for animal conservationists everywhere, says Gafni. He drops everything and runs to the Hula Reserve, south of the Sea of Galilee, whenever a new frog is sighted.
"We assume they are from last year's metamorphosis, and they were not tadpoles. The post-metamorphic frogs are about three centimeters long whereas the largest one -- the world champion for the genus, and for the species, is about 85 millimeters long," he says.
One theory is that the frog species originated in the Gibraltar region and migrated to Israel as a colonizer. Similar, but not identical, species today are found in Morocco and Spain.
Isn't it nice to know what man calls extinct can sometimes hop back into view?
2012 Christian Nature
In fact, after 50 years of so-called "extinction" in Israel's Hula Nature Reserve, it was formally declared extinct. Yet despite its obituary, Israeli animal conservationists and herpetologists never gave up hope.Some of them, including researcher Sarig Gafni, believed the frog was in hiding and even went on scouting missions on their days off. Over the years, they looked under stones, combed through the reeds and carried their nets while on army reserve duty.
In November, their dreams came true when a small female Hula painted frog was spotted. An international media flurry ensued, bringing scientists from abroad on flights to Israel to see for themselves.
Gafni, an ecologist at the Ruppin Academic Center School of Marine Sciences, joked that he is the world's record-holder for having handled the greatest number of the painted frog -- all six of them. "All were found about 200 meters apart in a very limited area. We found three males, one female and two juveniles who are less than one year old."Sadly, he reports, one of the sextet had to be euthanized because it had been badly injured by a bird trying to eat it. It is now preserved for study in the new Garden for Zoological Research at Tel Aviv University.
Overall, however, the find is a victory for the frog, whose Latin name is Discoglossus nigriventer, and for animal conservationists everywhere, says Gafni. He drops everything and runs to the Hula Reserve, south of the Sea of Galilee, whenever a new frog is sighted.
"We assume they are from last year's metamorphosis, and they were not tadpoles. The post-metamorphic frogs are about three centimeters long whereas the largest one -- the world champion for the genus, and for the species, is about 85 millimeters long," he says.
One theory is that the frog species originated in the Gibraltar region and migrated to Israel as a colonizer. Similar, but not identical, species today are found in Morocco and Spain.
Isn't it nice to know what man calls extinct can sometimes hop back into view?
2012 Christian Nature
