Croaking Christmas Trees

If you hear croaking coming from your Christmas tree, turn on the lights and prepare the Orajel. As cute as he may be, and as sweet his song, the camouflaged frog ornamenting your branch will need to die before he hops a ride up the chimney with Santa.

At least two Pacific chorus frogs (also know as Pacific tree frogs) have made their way to Anchorage with a shipment of out-of-state Christmas trees. This common species, not native to Alaska, "could be carrying some ugly viruses and funguses, including chytrid fungus that is devastating amphibians around the world," reports the AP [1].

Amphibians may be the planet's canary in the coal mine, and face what many experts consider the most significant mass extinction since the dinosaurs. "When frogs and other amphibians, which have existed for hundreds of millions of years, start to vanish, it is a sign that our natural world is in a state of peril," wrote Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin in a recent Los Angeles Times editorial [2]. Researchers have pinned the loss of at least 100 frog species on chytrid. And the fungus continues to spread, threatening many more.

Just last month, researchers went on a rescue expedition to Panama in hopes of beating chytrid to the region. They arrived too late. “Looking through the microscope and seeing the chytrid organism present on these animals with my own eyes was devastating,” said Eric Baitchman, Director of Veterinary Services at Zoo New England, in a statement from the Smithsonian National Zoological Park [3]. "I knew this meant we were already behind. This meant that the animals we were treating could very well be the last members of their species unless we act fast to get back out there and save as many more as we can from the wild." Fortunately, the lives of all but a few frogs were saved with treatment that washed off the skin-eating fungus.

Meanwhile, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is telling all Christmas tree customers to kill any frogs that cling to their holiday trees in hopes of preventing a similar spread to struggling species in this region. The most humane method suggested is a dab of Orajel tooth desensitizer applied to the head, which permanently knocks them out. Putting the frog in a plastic bag in the freezer is also an option, although Doug Warner, a spokesman for the state Division of Agriculture, offered another idea to the AP that could work given Alaska's cold weather: "Put it in a jar and put it out on the front porch and that way you won't have to put it in with your Christmas cookies."

Whatever you do, don't let the frog out into the wild—or onto Santa's sleigh for a world tour.