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incredulousTopic: Frog Blog Profiles
We have another Frog Blog Exclusive, Deborah Pergolotti, of tropical Queensland, Australia is the founder of Frog Decline Reversal Project, Inc. and Cairns Frog Hospital. Here is what she had to say.
The photos have been provided by Deborah Pergolotti and are copyrighted and owned by her. They were used with permission.
Top Ten Questions on the Board
Wendell’s Frog Blog Online Interview
1)WFB: Name, Rank and Serial Number. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Where did you go to school? Maybe a little about your family? (Married? Siblings?) Hobbies?
DP: Born in Yale's teaching hospital (although it wasn't called that way back
then!); lived with Yalies, worked for Yalies, supervised Yalies - lovely campus
to grow up next to. Loved those dinosaurs at the Peabody and that big hunk of
meteorite you can touch. I almost applied to go to Yale (for astronomy) but
moved to NYC instead. Moved to Sydney in 89; moved to tropical Queensland in 96
(I get tired of places after a while, I guess). Happily single; no family here
and very few ties to family up there. I'm a workaholic who no longer has the
health to be a workaholic. No time or money anymore for hobbies but I have a
telescope and I went to the local premiere of Revenge of the Sith dressed as
Princess Leia (that's a hint....! ).
Squamous cell carcinoma (cancer) in a White-lipped tree frog
(Litoria infrafrenata) (copyrighted)
2)WFB: What sparked your interest in amphibians? What is your favorite amphibian, and why?
DP: I was already involved in volunteering (simultaneously) for bird groups, a
reptile group, a frog group, shark conservation, bat conservation; I had a day
job, my own animals, etc. and I just felt that I was spread so thin, I wasn't
achieving anything for conservation. I decided that I had to pick ONE animal
and drop all the others so I picked frogs. I believed that the extent of
knowledge gaps in that taxon created the greatest opportunity for contribution,
even by someone without a degree. It was also a small animal to work with and
easy to access so it could be studied in a home setting, unlike other animals
for which all you can do is send money somewhere for somebody else to work with.
Not sure I have a favourite species although some of the large, fat ground
dwelling species here are very impressive such as the Barred frogs (Mixophyes),
and the Waterholding frogs (Cyclorana). The large tree frogs here are also very
charismatic such as the White-lipped and Common Green (Litoria infrafrenata and
L. caerulea) and we see so much suffering in these species.
3)WFB: Do you keep any pets?
DP: Interested in parrots long before frogs - Australia is closed to import so I
wasn't able to bring my birds from NYC. I now keep some of the domestic species
that are considered "pests" by the farmers such as galahs (that's Rose-breasted
cockatoos to you!).
"Redlynch" virus in a Waterholding frog
(Cyclorana novahollandae) which causes the limbs to lose their functionality as
well as other skeletal deformities and sudden death(copyrighted)
4)WFB: How are you involved with amphibians and their conservation?
DP: After doing a few other froggy things that I felt were deficient on their
conservation outcomes, I decided to start my own group. At the time that I
moved to the tropics, my health also went so I needed to do something from home
during parts of the day that I could function. I started out by taking in
injured frogs from the neighbourhood and fixing them up and made it into a
non-profit group after the numbers increased. There were three reasons for this
tactic of fixing up frogs:
1) amphibian rehabilitation is still a very new concept globally and very
little is known about how to fix what happens to amphibians. Too often what
happens is that nothing is done to study and help species while they are common
but everybody panics when they become endangered and suddenly start paying close
attention. By then, all the laws and restrictions kick in and the sorts of
things that private persons could do is skimmed right off the top because the
species are now off-limits to "amateurs" (at least it is that way here). So I
wanted to learn the techniques of fixing problems on amphibians while common
species are coming in the door. When they become rare in the future, we won't
be guessing at how to save them and we won't lose valuable individuals to
ignorance and trial and error.
2) We wanted to find out what sorts of things were happening to local frogs.
We knew that chytrid fungus was NOT involved so why else were they declining?
3) By learning how to save individual frogs, especially breeding age adults, we
could boost the numbers of frogs that were surviving to reproduce themselves and
reduce the losses to the population because of injury.
However, after the public knew of us and starting bringing in frogs, they very
rapidly changed from frogs which had been injured to frogs that were ill. We
chased the country's frog researchers with these specimens and discovered that
what was wrong with them was unknown and never seen here before. We realised
that getting these illnesses identified was the way to go when a frog with a
lump on its face turned up in April 1999. We biopsied the lump and sent it for
testing. The lab result was cancer. This confirmed that we had indeed stumbled
into a void that no-one else was filling. Since then, we have uncovered the
existence of another four new amphibian disease problems. We have been lobbying
government and academia for years trying to get funding for these new diseases
to be isolated and studied. So far, one of them has been picked up by James
Cook University and the Commonwealth govt (federal) is finally looking now at a
possible project to cover the other four. All these new diseases are described
in our website - the entire disease section is being restructured and updated so
have a read after May 16th - www.fdrproject.org.au
5)WFB: How did you get involved in this?
DP: Probably answered above. I did have frog husbandry experience in Sydney with
healthy frogs before I moved up here and that was essential to be able to
progress into caring for frogs that weren't normal and identifying the clinical
symptoms of disease.
Immuno-deficiency and advanced skin rot in the White-lipped tree frog. There
are more photos in our site.(copyrighted)
6)WFB: What has been the most fulfilling part of working with amphibians for you?
DP: The fact that I found several new problems/causes of frog decline that had
evaded everyone else in the country including those involved in frog monitoring
programs!
7)WFB: What would be the best way for others to get involved as you have?
DP: Hmmnn. This has not been an easy path to take and I probably wouldn't recommend
others to take my route if you want to get involved in disease research and
control. What I would recommend is to get a degree in anything that is
environmentally-oriented. There is still an attitude undertone operating in
some circles which says that you could discover the cure for cancer but, if you
don't have a degree, your cure is worthless. Once you've got your degree (or
while you're on that path), start chasing anomalies: the tadpoles of the wrong
colour; a drop in egg numbers or metamorph sizes; the weird spotting that frogs
in a particular location have been found with; the perfect pond for tadpoles
which has no tadpoles at all but all the other marine life; the loss of insects
from an area (which will lead to chronic poor condition in amphibians); etc.
Keep good records and take lots of clear photos.
However, anyone who has an interest in frogs can keep an eye out for anything
that is wrong or not normal and report all the details to someone/collect the
affected animals to deliver to a researcher. Tadpole rescue is also very
helpful for boosting local populations but please use procedures to make sure
that if a batch turns out to be diseased, you haven't been spreading it to other
tanks before you realised there was a problem. Often, tadpole problems won't
show up until the later stages of development when you've had your hands in
there and been sharing nets and cups and buckets for weeks already!
8)WFB: How did you learn about amphibians to do what you do?
DP: Learn by doing/self taught. I constantly chase researchers, vets, other experts
to gather information. The summary of what I know is constantly revised based
on the arriving cases and their responses to treatments, applying information
from others, observing conditions in the field, and constantly applying the
question, "why is that?" to any situation/case.
9)WFB: What is the most important thing you want others to know?
DP: Chase anomalies; keep good records; persist in understanding how the anomaly can
occur even when others say, "what are you bothering with that for - it's just a
fluke". What appears to be an odd case is often part of a growing trend once
you start paying attention. Find out who's interested in amphibians and let
them know when you find something odd. It might be known and common and you'll
learn something new, but it might also be another piece to a puzzle somebody is
trying to work on.
10)WFB: Do you have anything else you would like to share? (websites, contact info, other affiliations)
DP: I think we've got a pretty good site, if I do say so myself :) and it’s only
half the size that we intend to present - www.fdrproject.org.au. Besides
disease surveillance, our group has many other strategies to implement for frog
conservation but donations have been poor since the Asian tsunami - we're always
looking for more support!
I would like like to take this opportunity to thank Deborah for her work with amphibian conservation and rehabilitation. Through her hard work, dedication and discoveries, she is making the world for amphibians a better place.
Note: I'll put a quick link under conservation so you can check out her site and give support.
Deborah Pergolotti, May the force be with you.
Posted by wendellsfrogblog
at 9:58 AM EDT
Updated: Sunday, 14 May 2006 10:06 AM EDT
