Amphibians in Drawing, Photo, and Video

Hi! I'm Isabella!! but you can call me Izzy. And

this is a newt and my frog picture!

but...I've got to show you!!!!!

This movie is toady. I made it on my flip video camera.

Memorial Day Weekend 2008

Friday

Went to the Whitney during the wonderful Friday evening "Pay What You Like" deal. Was transported to various places -- bamboo forests, passing spaceships, other dimensions -- by the music of Lucky Dragons. I liked it; Isabella loved it; Jonathan said he hated it but managed to create this piece of contemporary art while listening to it.

Saturday

Turns out even non-drivers like us can consume to our heart's content at what is billed as the largest mall in New Jersey, thanks to a cheap and easy 30-minute bus ride from Port Authority.

Sunday

Best trip to the Bronx Zoo ever. I've been to the Bronx Zoo innumerable times, and while I always love it, almost every time something goes wrong. Sometimes it's way too hot. One time the weather seemed perfect, then suddenly it got cold and we hadn't brought jackets. A few years ago we went while Jonathan was still in a stroller. He fell asleep in the stroller and I discovered that almost every exhibit worth seeing didn't allow strollers. One time the whole trip was cancelled because I had planned to take the 2 train, but it was running local that day and would have taken too long to get there. And so on.

This time everything was perfect. The weather was lovely and remained so all day. We took the subway there and back and it was easy. Despite the crowds, we were able to enjoy a ton of great stuff, especially in the Asia and Jungle World sections. The Bug Carousel was delightful. And they were celebrating the Year of the Frog! What could be better?

Meet a Toad

Hi! My name is Jola. I like to go to Florida and go chat with
Mike. He is my lizard friend. We eat candied moths together.
My hobby is playing hide-and-seek. My favorite color is
indigo blue. My favorite food is worms. They taste like chicken
nuggets.

MIGHTY TOAD by Isabella

o toad

where did you get your mighty arms and legs

able to knead yourself out of anything?

how did you get your mighty face always looking grumpy?

how do you come to be startled so often and always on the run?

how is it that you don't like water like the frogs?

can you secretly read but not be able to tell us?

have you always been around?

O mighty toad, please answer me!

How We Found George

Isabella reports: One rainy night, I heard croaking out the window, and I asked Grandma to go out to catch some toads. So she went out. She saw four toads. She caught one. She put him in the peeper's place. [The peeper was later named Harold.] He was too big. So we set up the terrarium and put him inside. We decided to put the peeper in too. So we did.

The toad we caught is named George. George is jumpy when you hold him and calm in the terrarium. He is a good toad. We named him after the George in Captain Underpants, and cooler than ever, he talks!

Toads of the Day: New Friends

We are back from the Catskills, where we have some new friends, a big toad and a very small toad, named, respectively, George and Harold, from the trouble-making heroes of the Captain Underpants series.

George is very special because . . . he talks! He makes a chirpy sound that Isabella thinks sounds like a bird and I think sounds like a small sqeak toy determined to be understood.

Grandma, who is with George now in the Catskills, reports that when she came into the enclosed porch to check in on George and Harold this morning, George started to chirp when he saw her. She loved it, and she and George had a delightful exchange.







When I look head-on into George's eyes, I find myself thinking of HypnoToad.

Toad of the Day

These beauties are Bufo periglenes or golden toads, from Costa Rica. The species is an "extreme example of a sexually dimorphic amphibian" -- meaning that the males and females are very different. The males are bright orange coloration, and the females are black with scarlet blotches edged in yellow. Sadly, I must report that these lovely creatures are extinct.

As noted in the Extinction Website:
"None have been seen since 1989. It last bred in normal numbers in 1987, and its breeding sites were well known. In 1987, due to erratic weather, the pools dried up before the larva had matured. Out of potential 30,000 toads, only 29 had survived. In 1988, only eight males and two females could be located. In 1989, a single male was found, this was the last record of the species. Extensive searches since this time have failed to produce any more records of the golden toad. (DeGroot 2000; Pounds & Savage 2004)"

Please send us your candidates for Toad of the Day -- photos or drawings.

Toad of the Day

This handsome fellow is a male Bufo americanus from the Catskills. Not knowing at first that males were smaller than females, we named this one Nina, but that didn't stop him from hopping onto a female one day and hanging on for 48 hours. (This mating behavior is called amplexus.)

Mr. Toad and Nina, are, of course, the stars of that Christmas Classic The Ribbiting Santas.

Toad of the Day

Welcome. Our first Toad of the Day is the big, beautiful and beloved Mr. Toad, a female Bufo americanus from the Catskills in New York, named before we knew she was a girl.