Sam Noble Museum holds lecture about frog conservation

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History hosted an event Friday focusing on the importance of frogs to the world’s ecosystems.

Museum staff joined with 23 states and 19 countries to celebrate Save the Frogs Day, the largest day of amphibian education and conservation action in history, according to the event’s website. A team of scientists, educators, naturalists and policymakers created the nationwide event to raise awareness about the importance of frogs to our ecosystems and the troubles frogs face, museum spokeswoman Linda Coldwell said.

More than 700 adults and children attended the event, said Janalee Caldwell, museum herpetology curator.

Frogs are in danger of extinction due to habitat loss, pollution, climate change and a devastating disease caused by fungus, according to a press release. Frogs are an essential part of the world’s ecosystems because their health is thought to be indicative of the health of the biosphere as a whole, according to the press release.

Caldwell and fellow museum curator Laurie Vitt presented lectures about the threats to and role of frogs in ecosystems. The curators were a part of the first conference in the late 1980s that realized frogs were in danger on a global level.

“People probably know or maybe they have read that frog populations are in trouble and that they are declining but they don’t know any details about it,” said Caldwell, who is a zoology professor. “So we try to provide some details and let them know why frogs are in trouble and what they can do to help.”

Event organizers said they hope the event will continue to grow in scale.

“It will get bigger,” said Vitt, zoology professor. “I think the main thing we hope to accomplish with this and future ones is to make people aware that we are surrounded by a natural environment, and we can’t live without it. There seems to be kind of a pervasive philosophy that we operate independently of the natural environment around us and that’s just not the case.”