Thursday, March 11, 2010

farmdoc's blog post number 690

For each wombat I have in my pen, the Tasmanian Government issues me with a permit. Last Sunday I emailed Patsy (who works in the Government) to cancel my permit for Coco following her successful release. Yesterday I received an email back from Patsy in which she wrote: ‘You have done such a great job with the wombats in your care. Thank you for all your help’. A nice compliment, but I feel grateful for the privilege I have of releasing wombats; so I should be the one doing the thanking. Having cared for and released 12 wombats, I know a tiny bit about them. I know even less about frogs. I know their presence signifies a healthy ecosystem; so it’s unsurprising that frog populations are declining in Australia and world-wide. Thus I’m always pleased when I hear frog calls around here. I adore the name Pobblebonk and the sound of its call. However I can’t identify other frog species by sound, or any at all by sight. My favourite recent frog story is this one – about the 2008 re-discovery in NSW’s Southern Tablelands, of the yellow-spotted bell frog (pictured) – which was presumed extinct for the past 30 years. The NSW Environment Minister said: ‘This is the equivalent of discovering the Tasmanian tiger, in terms of amphibians, in terms of frogs’. Dear treasured yellow-spotted bell frog, you’re a bright sunbeam of hope shining through an environmental thunderhead. I wish you all the success in the world.

2 comments:

Meg said...

Have a listen to the Chernobyl Frogs. Amazing!

farmdoc said...

Amazing, Meg. How can frogs be resistant to radioactivity? The Chernobyl frogs put paid to my statement that the presence of frogs signifies a healthy ecosystem, eh. Or perhaps only if we define 'healthy' in terms of a human construct rather than a frog one. xxx