Mutant frogs evidence of environmental damage
Theresia Sufa, Bogor
A lecturer with the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB)'s School of Forest Resources Conservation, Ami Mardiastuti, urged the people to be on alert if they saw frogs with abnormalities, particularly noticeable in the limbs.
She said recently in a discussion on the environment that frogs are quicker than most other species to react to changes in the environment. If they have six digits on their forelimbs or hind limbs, or if any of its limbs are abnormally short, it means the environment where they live has been severely damaged.
Ami referred to studies in the United States and Canada that put frogs as environmental indicators. The studies revealed that abnormal frogs were found in areas which have been damaged from excess pesticide and/or other poisonous chemical substances.
"When we find an abnormal frog with the above symptoms, we must quickly do something to make our environment cleaner and healthier," she said.
"If we just keep quiet for a long time, it is possible that many of the next generation -- of people -- will have such abnormalities too. In Minamata, Japan, many children have problems due to mercury poisoning," Ami added.
As an amphibian, frogs play an important role in their ecosystems. They are a predator of insects, and the prey of other animals such as snakes.
Speaking about the chemical substances that damaged the environment, Ami said the substances might be the result of spraying pesticide, particularly using airplanes, over the last 50 years.
"We must learn from those rich countries which are just now seeing the impact of decades of spraying chemical substances."
"We have already found frogs with abnormalities in East Java. The findings are relevant to the fact that the area has been damaged from waste dumping," she said, adding that her research team just finished studying areas in East Java and West Java.
Ami said that in the United States and Canada, there had been an environmental program involving children.
"They are taught to compare the left and right part of a frog's body. If the frog's physical condition is good, it means the environment is also still good," she added. "However, I'm afraid that in Indonesia, people will think mutant frogs are some kind of miracle."
Meanwhile, two other IPB researchers Anisa Fitri and Hijrah Utama fear that Limnonectes blythii frog, endemic to western Sumatra, will be extinct due to massive hunting by the people for consumption.
That frog is categorized as the second largest in the world as they can reach 25 centimeters in length and 1.5 kilograms in weight. The Conraua goliath frog in Africa is the largest.
Anisa and Hijrah said there were an estimated 450 species of frogs in Indonesia, but only six of them are favored for consumption. Those include one frog, the Limnonectes macrodon, native to Java; the Limnonectes leporinus, native to Kalimantan; the Fejervarya cancrivora and the Fejervarya limnocharis, which live in and around rice fields, along with the aforementioned frog from Sumatra.
Indonesia is the largest exporter of frozen frog legs in the world, with an average of four million kilograms per year.
In Bogor's local market, around 1,000 frogs are sold every day at a price of approximately Rp 25,000 (US$2.7) per 30 frogs.
Fitri said despite the high demand, frogs have yet to be bred on a large scale, although some locals tried in Bogor and Sukabumi several years ago to no avail.