“African Clawed Frog.” Newport Bay Conservancy, Sep. 2020, newportbay.org/wildlife/reptiles-amphibians/african-clawed-frog/.

The African Clawed frog, initially brought over to the United States for tests on frog pregnancy, had come to be an invasive species in California. These frogs have a tendency to stay underwater for long periods of time, making them often difficult to discover and thus eradicate. In Big Canyon, California, populations established themselves many years before the general populace caught on—by then, however, it was much too late to eradicate them. The African Clawed frogs have now established themselves in the area; because they thrive in the given habitat and its climate, removing and controlling the species has proven to be extremely difficult. Even so, scientists have decided that attempting to regulate the frogs in the area is the most feasible step forward. At the moment, environmentalists at Big Canyon are replacing the existing pond with a freshwater one and draining the pond sequentially to help maintain the frog population.

An interesting takeaway from this article is how crucial it is to avoid introducing new species to an environment and, if unavoidable, to swiftly intervene as soon as possible. Unfortunately, these steps did not occur in the case of the African Clawed frogs. After the frogs were used for the preliminary pregnancy tests in the labs, they became a popular pet at aquariums. However, these frogs populate at prodigious raes—one estimate suggests that over 100,000 lived in a single water body. The problem now reaches beyond Big Canyon and the frogs have been spotted throughout Orange County as well. The article leaves the reader with a quick, to-the-point request: “You can do your part, too. Please don’t release exotic pets into the wild.” To that note, this example certainly wasn’t a tale of optimism. Native species and their surrounding environments are suffering because of uneducated individuals releasing their pet frogs into the wild and, subsequently, environmentalists who were unable to intervene quickly enough. It can often seem easy to point fingers in situations like this, but it’s more productive to consider that educating the populace on the damaging effects of invasive species could help prevent issues like these from spiraling out of control.