Frogwatch
Frogwatch, a remarkable success story started in Western Australia, is the brainchild of Dr. Ken Aplin. His work, as the curator of reptiles and frogs in the Western Australian Museum, invoked long field trips and he wondered if a community-based frog-rmonitoring network could help him keep track of frogs. Through such a network, ordinary untrained members of the community could learn about frog habitats, observe the numbers and kinds of frogs in their local area, and report this information to the museum.
‘Launched in 1995, Frogwatch recently gained its 3221st member, and many people say that this is the best thing the museum has ever done. Each participant receives a ‘Frogwatch Kit’ – a regular newsletter, an audio tape of frog calls and identification sheets. Recently, Frogwatch membership increased dramatically when a mysterious parasitic fungus disease began attacking frogs nationwide. Although research is yet incomplete, scientists suspect the fungus originated overseas, perhaps in South America, where frogs have died in catastrophic numbers from a fungus disease genetically similar to the Australian organism.
Researchers in Western Australia needed to know how widespread the infection was in the state’s frog populations. So Aplin sent an ‘F-file’ (frog fungus facts) alert to Frogwatch members, requesting their help. He asked them to deliver him dead or dying frogs. More than 2,000 frogs have now been examined, half from the museum’s existing collection. Aplin once thought the fungus had arrived in Western Australia in only the past year or two, but tests now suggest it has been there since the late 1980s.
Frogwatch has proved to be Abe perfect link to the public and Aplin has become a total convert to community participation. He’s now aiming for a network of 15,000 Frogwatch members as the museum can’t afford to use professional resources to monitor frog populations. Much of the frog habitat is on private land, and without community support, monitoring the frogs would be impossible.
Not everyone is convinced by the ‘feelgood’ popularity of Frogwatch. While Aplin believes even tiny backyard ponds can help to significantly improve frog numbers, Dr. Dale Roberts isn’t so sure, A senior zoology lecturer at the University of WA, Roberts agrees the program has: tapped into the public’s enthusiasm for frogs, but he warns that strong public awareness does not amount to sound science.
He argues that getting the public to send in pages of observations is a good thing, but giving these reports credibility may not be valid scientifically. In addition, he’s not convinced that Frogwatch’s alarmist message about the danger of fungal infection is valid either. In Western Australia, for example, there was a long summer and very, late drenching rains, that year, following two equally dry years. So, he argues, there are other things that might have precipitated the deaths. He questions what could be done about it anyway. If it’s already widespread, it may not be worth the cost and effort of doing anything about it. Even if it’s causing high death rates, he says he can still find every frog species found over the past ten years in the south-west of Australia.
Roberts argues that Western Australia is different. Unlike most other states, species are still being discovered there; the disappearances of frog types in Queensland and New South Wales, are not occurring in Western Australia, although three south-west species are on the endangered list. Roberts believes that no amount of garden ponds in Perth will help those species, which live in isolated habitats targeted for development.
Aplin’s response is that increasing the number of frog-friendly habitats is important for the very reason that many Western Australian frog species are found in small, highly restricted locations. He argues that pesticide-free gardens and ponds can offer a greater chance of survival to animals battling habitat disturbance, environmental pollutants, climatic variations, and now fungal disease. Aplin’s opinion is that they should use the precautionary principle in cases where they don’t yet know enough about the situation. Usually diseases sort themselves out naturally and some frog fauna will co-evolve with the fungus. Given time some balance may be restored, but in the shorter term, they are seeing negative impacts.
The nationwide spread of the chytrid fungus is being mapped by Dr. Rick Speare, a specialist in amphibian disease at James Cook University. Speare also tests the accuracy of’ Aplin’s fungus diagnoses and says Frogwatch is ‘an amazing and under-acknowledged system … the best program in Australia for harnessing public interest in frog biology… There are a lot of eyes out there looking for dead or sick frogs, beyond the power of any biologist to collect.’
Aplin argues that they should never underestimate the importance of’ having a community base, especially when governments want to cut research funds, ‘People can protest in ways that a handful of scientists hiding in a laboratory can’t do. For just about every environmental problem, community involvement is fundamental.’ Furthermore, Frogwatch is proving to be a social phenomenon as much as anything else. It seems ordinary people know that frogs are a measure of the environment’s health.
SECTION 1: QUESTIONS 1-13
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer of the passage?
Write:
|
YES |
if the statement agrees with the views of the writer |
|
NO |
if the statement contradicts the views of the writer |
|
NOT GIVEN |
if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this |
1 _________________ Frogwatch members need a basic level of scientific training.
2 _________________ All Frogwatch members live in Western Australia.
3 _________________ Frogwatch has proved that frogs are disappearing because of a fungus.
4 _________________ Scientists in WA have examined about two thousand frogs collected by Frogwatch.
5 _________________ The frog fungus disease has been in Western Australia for more than ten years.
6 _________________ New species of frogs have been found in Western Australia recently.
Questions 7-12
The reading passage describes the opinions of Dr, Ken Aplin, Dr. Dale Roberts and Dr. Rick Speare in relation to strategies for frog conservation.
Match one of the researchers A-C to each of the statements below.
There may be more than one correct answer.
Write:
A – for Dr. Aplin
B – for Dr. Roberts
C – for Dr. Speare
Example
Frogwatch is the best Australian program for encouraging public interest in frogs. A
7 ___________ Although the involvement of large numbers of people is encouraging, this does not guarantee scientifically valid data.
8 ___________ The development of frog-friendly backyards will help to conserve frog species.
9 ___________ Although it is possible that frogs will adapt to fungal and other problems in the long term, we should take precautions in case this does not occur.
10 ___________ As there may be many other explanations for recent frog deaths, it is not worth spending a great deal of time and money studying this fungus.
11 ___________ Because of the unique geography of Western Australia,most frog species in this State are not in danger of extinction.
12 ___________ Frogwatch has greater potential for frog observation than is possible by the scientific community.
Question 13
Write the appropriate letter A-D.
13The main purpose of Frogwatch is …
Afor people to collect and deliver dead or dying frogs to scientists.
Bfor people to observe and collect information about frog populations for scientists.
Cfor people to allow scientists onto their private laud to look at frog habitats.
Dfor people to set up ponds in their gardens as habitat for frogs.
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