Finding frogs and trouble after dark in the park

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

Our story started a few weeks ago at Irvine Regional Park with Vic’s

bird class. We expected nighthawks, owls and poorwills, all birds

that are active at night. What surprised us was hundreds of western

toads on the park roads.

Apparently, toads like the warmth of the asphalt. They congregate

there in the early evening before hopping on to do their toady

business of catching insects and making baby toads. OK, technically

making baby toads involves eggs that are laid in water, that hatch

into swimming tadpoles, that metamorphose into toads by growing legs

and losing tails, but that’s not where this story is going.

The large number of toads at Irvine Regional Park led to the

innocent question of whether there were still western toads here in

Huntington Beach. They’re on the species list of Shipley Nature

Center, but we had never seen any.

In the interest of science, we decided to informally survey

Huntington Beach’s amphibian population. Unfortunately for us, this

is best done at night. Picture the two of us prowling around the

swamps of Huntington Beach with flashlights. Now picture the

Huntington Beach police force actively investigating all suspicious

nighttime activity. Yep, once again we attracted the attention of law

enforcement.

First we did some research. Amphibians are an order of vertebrates

that includes frogs, toads, newts and salamanders. The first

amphibians crawled out of the primordial slime about 360-million

years ago, long before the age of dinosaurs. Now, after surviving for

millions of years, frog populations are declining all over the world.

Suggested causes for the decline include pollution with

pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals or other toxics. Other possible

causes are habitat fragmentation and loss, fungus and infectious

diseases. Predation by -- or competition with -- introduced nonnative

species also takes a toll. But frogs are declining even in remote

areas with pristine water, so global climate change or increased UV

irradiation due to loss of the ozone layer are other possibilities.

While different factors may be causing declines for different

species, one thing is certain. Amphibian populations are declining

all over the world and our area is no exception. Here in southern

California, the species known as the red-legged frog was once common,

but is now limited to one remote area in Riverside County. Another

southern Californian amphibian, the arroyo toad, is now endangered,

and may no longer be breeding in Orange County.

Finished with research, we headed out for adventure. Armed with

flashlights, a night vision scope, and an incredible predilection for

getting into trouble, we drove to the parking area in Central Park

that is reserved for Friends of Shipley Nature Center volunteers. We

put our parking permit on the dashboard and ambled off in the

moonlight to explore the locked nature center.

This coastal area should have Pacific treefrogs, California newts,

western toads and slender salamanders. But we found no native

amphibians at Shipley Nature Center. Unfortunately, we did find

bullfrogs, an introduced species. Bullfrogs reproduce rapidly and

have a voracious appetite for other frogs and toads. They can wipe

out native amphibian populations in no time.

We noticed a commotion involving a fire engine outside the nature

center so we locked the gates and went to investigate. The fire

engine and several police cars were leaving the park, so we walked

over to Huntington Lake.

We heard plenty of Pacific treefrogs at the lake. This tiny frog,

often not much bigger than a thumbnail, calls with a loud

“kreeeck-ek.”

Although the Pacific treefrog is limited to the western United

States, its call is the one most people associate with frogs. The

reason is that when Hollywood wanted frog sounds for movies, the

foley artists recorded local frogs, which happened to be Pacific

treefrogs.

Back to the squad cars and fire engine. It seems that while we

were monitoring wildlife, someone thought they saw a fire in the

nature center and phoned it in. Both the police and fire officials

responded. While we were hunting for toads and frogs, the police were

running the license plate of our suspiciously parked car.

Finished with our amphibian hunt for the night, we drove away from

the park. But an officer saw us leave, caught up with us and pulled

us over. Rats, we thought, busted for frog watching.

Maybe the license plate check identified us as merely harmless

eco-whacko columnists prone to getting into trouble. Or maybe it’s

just that Vic is a former mayor. At any rate, we were recognized.

Instead of running us in for jacklighting frogs in the middle of the

night, the officer merely wanted to tell us about the reported fire.

We hadn’t noticed anything amiss at the nature center and hadn’t

smelled smoke. However, there might have been another cause for the

report of fire. The Friends of Shipley Nature Center had just

received a load of fresh wood chips for their restoration project.

The composting wood chips were probably emitting steam in the cold

night air.

The officer suggested that the wood chips might have been

smoldering with spontaneous combustion. He scrambled the police

helicopter and the aero unit scanned the center for heat with their

infrared scope. Fortunately there was no fire.

All was well in the nature center, except that like everywhere

else in the world, the amphibians are in trouble.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com.