2 thoughts on “The Unseen Extinction Wiping Out the World’s Wildlife”
I suspect there are more threatened species that are not reported (yet.) — Here in Manabi Province where I live in Ecuador, there’s a small frog that is silent and in hiding during the dry season yet ermerges in full concert after the first life-giving rains arrive between December and February. I call them “cowboy frogs’ because they become vocal when darkness sets in each day, and they chant, ‘Aye- aye- aye… aye.. aye.. aye,’ like cowboys herding their cattle. They often celebrate all night long!
This year the rains were scant, and the night time was basically silent. I thought many times about Rachael Carson’s silent spring, and it was very eerie to experience that silent ‘invierno.’ When the clouds should have been turning off their taps, the rains began, about four months late. I wonder how this change in climate affects the flora and fauna as they adjust to humid wet weather when it’s normally cool and dry. The frogs, btw, did celebrate a tiny bit, but there were no all-night celebrations of the rains.
I now wonder if the current outbreak of dengue and chikungunya in this area is connected to the absence of the frogs and their role in dining on mosquitoes and their larvae.
lisa (ps, i’m here thanks to the robert scribbler blog…)
GarryRogers Nature Conservation 
I suspect there are more threatened species that are not reported (yet.) — Here in Manabi Province where I live in Ecuador, there’s a small frog that is silent and in hiding during the dry season yet ermerges in full concert after the first life-giving rains arrive between December and February. I call them “cowboy frogs’ because they become vocal when darkness sets in each day, and they chant, ‘Aye- aye- aye… aye.. aye.. aye,’ like cowboys herding their cattle. They often celebrate all night long!
This year the rains were scant, and the night time was basically silent. I thought many times about Rachael Carson’s silent spring, and it was very eerie to experience that silent ‘invierno.’ When the clouds should have been turning off their taps, the rains began, about four months late. I wonder how this change in climate affects the flora and fauna as they adjust to humid wet weather when it’s normally cool and dry. The frogs, btw, did celebrate a tiny bit, but there were no all-night celebrations of the rains.
I now wonder if the current outbreak of dengue and chikungunya in this area is connected to the absence of the frogs and their role in dining on mosquitoes and their larvae.
lisa (ps, i’m here thanks to the robert scribbler blog…)
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Lisa, Thank you for the comment. Here in drought-stricken Arizona it is growing quieter each year.
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