Search / 28 posts tagged Year of the Frog

September 6, 2008 Year of the Frog, pop culture, religion | Tags: Wildlife, endangered, Amphibian, Amphibian Ark, Frog, Year of the Frog, extinct, museum, martin, kippenberger, bolzano, italy, pope, pope benedict, XVI, sculpture, cross, frog on cross, art, italian, italian art, crucified |    As

Lovable little muppet person Selena Gomez has teamed with similarly beloved muppet Kermit the Frog to present a PSA drawing attention to endangered frogs. The "Year of the Frog" campaign was organized by Disney, Amphibian Ark, Conservation International, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Did you know that 2008 is the Year of the Frog?  The year has been deemed so by Amphibian Ark, a worldwide collaborative program of environmental agencies.  It’s about time frogs got their spotlight and respect!  I must confess to a lifelong fondness for frogs, so I am delighted to share my appreciation of these amazing creatures with you.

Jeremy Elton Jacquot just posted this on TreeHugger:  With the hot summer months fast approaching, Amphibian Ark, the international organization helping to keep endangered amphibian species afloat (whose efforts we profiled here), needs your help now more than ever.

What a thorough, great article on Amphibian Ark in today’s Washington Post! The Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington and the Bronx Zoo in NYC are doing terrific work to save the Panamanian golden frog and Kihansi spray toad, respectively. Story here.

Saturday’s FrogWatch event organized by the National Wildlife Federation and supported by the National Association of Biology Teachers got a good writeup in the Chicago Tribune today. I learned in the story that the volunteer frog watchers in Illinois helped find a species that was believed to have disappeared from the Midwest.

Polly Phillpot cares about the amphibian crisis — she cares enough that she jumped 165 feet from at very tall bridge in Scotland to raise money that will save the frogs. Polly is the senior education officer at the Edinburgh Zoo and raised £620 or $1,200 for the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) to support the work of Amphibian Ark.

 It’s heartening to see a major Flickr group like Voices in the Wilderness create a vault of wonderful amphibian photos to support Amphibian Ark and Year of the Frog. Here’s link to their page.

A salute to the press release writer for the Auckland, New Zealand, City Council. Hadn’t seen the word “frogtastic” yet! Frogtastic holiday fun at Auckland Zoo Monday, 7 April 2008, 3:59 pm Press Release: Auckland Zoo Auckland City Council Media release Frogtastic holiday fun at Auckland

So for Earth Day, how can our amphibian friends help teachers and home school parents instill the right lessons in our children? Here are some good resources: National Geographic offers a “Frog Alert! Frog Alert!” lesson plan online. It’s designed for kindergarten through second grade, and it focuses on the effects of water pollution.