A billion frogs on world's plates

[Bhaisahab]

Source: BBC

Up to one billion frogs are taken from the wild for human consumption each year, according to a new study.

Researchers arrived at this conclusion by analysing UN trade data, although they acknowledge there is a lot of uncertainty in the figure.

France and the US are the two biggest importers, with significant consumption in several East Asian nations.

About one-third of all amphibians are listed as threatened species, with habitat loss the biggest factor.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7845306.stm

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Accompanying image with the caption: 'Frogs are liquidised to make a "health drink" in parts of South America.'

You are permitted to hurl.

[hedgehog]

1. I would guess that eating some frogs has nothing to do with the threat to

some species. The frogs that get hunted and eaten are probably in good supply. The frog species that are threatened are threatened by loss of habitat, and probably wouldn't be worth hunting due to their relative scarcity.

This is not to advocate hunting and eating frogs, just to point out that hunting is not necessarily the demon in this case.

[Bhaisahab]

4. Actually, hunting exacerbates the problem

As the report says:

"Indonesia emerged from Professor Bradshaw's analysis as both the largest exporter of frogs - 5,000 tonnes per year - and a major consumer. This has raised concerns that it may soon experience the declines induced by hunting that have been seen elsewhere in the world, notably in France and the US, where species such as the Californian red-legged frog have crashed."

[WriteDown]

2. Most reptiles and amphibians are eaten around the world...

Disgusts me. I wish some effort was actually made to farm these species rather than collecting them from the wild.

[slampoet]

13. How many wetlands do you drain to farm frogs?

[sandnsea]

3. habitat loss the biggest factor

In other words, if people wouldn't keep encroaching on our wildlands, there'd be enough frogs to feed the world.

[old mark]

5. Frog legs for everyone! nt

[MADem]

6. OK, might as well get this over with.....

I've heard they "taste like chicken" but I just can't eat 'em. I'm sure I'd manage to get over my aversion if I were starving, but that hasn't happened to me, lucky that I am.

I'd rather the frogs do the eating of mosquitoes and such, rather than me eating the frogs....

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. They do taste like chicken

heard the line in the matrix? Everything tastes like chicken?

I had some when I was a kid... I was curious.

[Warpy]

7. Frog legs were a frequent menu item when I was growing up

They weren't the worst thing my mother cooked, but I didn't like them enough to keep the habit after I left home.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

11. Frog legs were a regular

item at the buffet in the clubhouse at the Sarasota dog track in the 80's
Ok, I know, a double :hide: :hide:
I was less enlightened then

[applegrove]

8. Poor frogs.

[cosmicone]

9. Overharvesting of frogs has created rampant malaria

epidemics in many countries. Without frogs, mosquito larvae grow exponentially.

[KamaAina]

10. Huh? We can't raise them?

Is there any benefit to wild-caught versus farm (tank)-raised frogs, as there is with salmon? If not, it would seem to me that frogs would be about the easiest edible thing to aquaculture... of course, that does leave the problem of what to do with the rest of the frog after the cuisses de grenouille are harvested, famously addressed by Gary Larson in The Far Side by showing a frog wheelchair marathon...