Vancouver Island’s got ‘em. Biologist Stan Orchard says he’s got a cure.
The meteoric spread from a small portion of eastern Canada and the US to a world-wide menace. Bullfrogs prey on native species, including endangered ones, and as an invasive species, have no natural predators.
“With this invasive species, it’s way out of whack. We don’t have the predator that would control the population [in B.C.]. Every year you’ve got females producing 20,000 eggs. Even if 10 percent get through the tadpole stage, you’ve still got 2,000 juveniles emerging for every female.” – Stan Orchard, biologist
Combatting this problem using traditional methods has provided ineffective. That’s why Orchard developed, the “electro-frogger”, a two-metre pole that, at the push of a button, delivers an electric charge into a small area of water, paralyzing them and allowing them to be moved away and put down.
Eradication will be a long process, but Orchard is optimistic about the project.
“We’ve collected bullfrogs at a rate of up to 300 in about two and a half hours,” he said.
Read more about the bullfrog blues and the “electro-frogger” which has been created to cure them in Canadian Wildlife magazine, Sep + Oct 2014 edition.
Feature image by Tom Rose.