Calaveras Frogs Jump Farther (HerpDigest)

Calaveras Frogs Jump Farther (Mark Twain)
by Michael Kay, 7/16/10 Union Democrat, Angels Camp, California

Scientists from two of the nation's top research universities announced last weekend that they agree with Mark Twain: Calaveras County's jumping frogs should be celebrated.

A year after four researchers from Brown and Northeastern universities traveled to Angels Camp in 2009 to videotape 3,449 frog jumps over the three days of the 82nd annual Jumping Frog Jubilee, the unofficial results are in.

Using footage from their HD camcorder, a specialized grid system and an algorithm that accounts for perspective, researchers from the two institutions determined that an American bullfrog can leap 7.2 feet in a single bound - shattering the previous record.

Herpetologists - scientists who study amphibians and reptiles - have long relied on a paper published in 1978 by Smithsonian Institution biologist George Zug that found the single leap max for a bullfrog, or rana catesbeiana, to be 4.3 feet.

"He just got a whole bunch of frogs and jumped them down the hall at the Smithsonian," said Henry Astley, a doctoral student at Brown and the author of the paper.

As Jon Kitchell, a founding member of the Calaveras Frog Jockeys, will tell you, there's a lot more to it than that.

Some frogs are suited for jumping. The temperature of the jumping surface must be just right. And the temperature of the frog has to be perfect.

A degree too hot for a minute too long, and frogs become "gellied" - soft and mushy and disinclined to move - said Kitchell. Too cool and they start to hibernate.

Then there's the motivation. Shrieks, stomping feet, sharply blown air and gentle tickles were in common use at this year's event.

"We trick them into thinking that we're coming to eat them, essentially," Kitchell said with a chuckle.

But it did not take a top jockey and their best frog to beat the old record. Fifty-four percent of the recorded jumps were greater than 4.3 feet, according to the findings.

"Were the pro frogs tested for steroids?" asked herpetologist Matt Hinderliter of the The Nature Conservancy in Mississippi, half-joking, during the presentation.

He was told, he said Thursday, that no froggy urine samples were taken. But given many of the event's rental frogs were among those who beat the previous record, the team did not believe doping was responsible for Calaveras County frogs' prowess.

Astley and his colleagues presented their results July 10 at the 2010 Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, but they have not yet published the data in a scientific journal.
Since many journals prohibit researchers talking to the media prior to publication, Astley said he could not comment on the study.

But Emily Taylor, an assistant professor of biological sciences with California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, who attended Astley's presentation, said it could have wide-reaching significance.