Louisiana is now home to one more frog species , and that ’s a job . accord toPopular Science , scientists have found invasive Cuban treefrogs at a New Orleans menagerie , marking the first toehold the amphibians have been able-bodied to make in the U.S. outside of Florida .
Cuban treefrogsare native to Cuba , the Cayman Islands , and the Bahamas , but they come to the U.S. in the 1920s by way of the Florida Keys . They have since diffuse as far northward as Jacksonville . The massive frogs — females can grow up to 6 inches long — are major pests , hunting several species of native Floridian frogs and out - vie others , clog up drains and set up up camp in toilets , and now and then causing business leader outages when they make up one’s mind to hide in utility boxes .
Now , the species is showing up in New Orleans , more than 430 miles by . They may have stowed away on a 2016 shipment of palm trees from Lake Placid , Florida bound for the elephant showing at New Orleans ’s Audubon Zoo .
A U.S. Geological Survey in the fall of 2017 enchant hundreds of the frogs on and around the zoo ’s grounds . Over the course of four surveys , USGS scientists found 367 frogs and 2000 Cuban treefrog tadpoles . They drained the two pools where the tadpoles were drown in the hopes of killing off any they miss , but the likelihood of reversing the bed cover of the frogs is low . The USGS warn in a recentpress statementthat " decimate the recently find population in Louisiana is improbable . " The frogs procreate quickly and will eat almost anything . ground on the results of these sight , it seems they have already driven out all the aboriginal frogs in Riverview , the section of Audubon Park where the pollywog were find .
Brad Glorioso , the lead USGS ecologist on thestudy , explain that while stowaway treefrogs have trouble exist when they make their means to higher latitude , the clime around New Orleans seems to be more hospitable to them . " They often end up in places with inapplicable climates , but in south Louisiana , Cuban treefrogs seem capable of withstanding seasonal cold spells by try appropriate refuge , " he said .
For now , the salutary scientists can hope for is keeping the frogs from move across the river from the zoo into one of the with child public nature preserves nearby .
[ h / tPopular Science ]
