A Story Of Frogs

It’s spring time at Kandersteg! After a very sunny and warm March, April is (until now) cloudy and alternates between rain and snow with a little bit of sunshine.  Even if it is quite annoying you can consider it as typical “April weather” for this region. This constantly changing weather in April is triggered by a big temperature gradient between Northern Europe and Southern Europe in spring. The air temperature tries to balance itself bringing constant weather changes in Central Europe.

Pinkie checking out the frog eggs



The frogs around the Centre don’t seem impressed by the changing weather and are happily reproducing themselves.

One lunch time we had the chance to observe them at close range around the Centre. Their behavior raised plenty of questions and lead to an interesting discussion about what they are exactly doing, where they come from and where they’ve spent the winter.

I did some research and I would like to introduce you to the secret life of the frogs.

Frogs are hibernating animals, they “sleep away” the winter and when spring arrives the animal “wakes up” again. A high concentration of glucose in the frog’s vital organs prevents them from freezing. When they wake up from their winter dormancy they migrate to their breeding sites. The female frogs lays between a hundred to a thousand eggs while the male attaches itself to the female’s back to fertilize the eggs. This position is called “Amplexus”. The male frog sits on top of the female’s back and grasps behind her front legs around her middle section. This can actually last for several days.



The "Amplexus" position



Did you know that frogs are a good sign for an intact environment? Having lots of frogs in an area tells you that the environment is healthy and complete. If for some reason frogs are suddenly missing, then this is telling us about problems in our environment. The frogs are also beneficial to humans because they eat so many insect pests. So it is an important matter to protect them.

Many frogs don’t survive the migration because there are many roads to cross. How can you help?

Make people aware that there is a place where a lot of frogs are crossing the street. In some streets there are constructions built to prevent frogs crossing these roads. In the evening people go and collect the frogs in baskets and then carry them across the busy roads.

So in conclusion the KISC frogs say “quak, quak”.

Irene Vontobel (CH)

Eco Assistant