[thedude]

Well Washington had a huge winter storm that wound up knocking out my power. It's happened before no big deal really. Except when the new generator breaks and you have to take it back, and in the 2 hours you're gone the s*** hits the fan. I live out in the woods basically, but I've never had a problem reaching my place in my car. However, others not so much. A dump truck wound up getting stuck across the road so I couldn't get by. By the time they were moved 6 hours later, and I was able to get to my place the damage was done. My house was at 50 when I left, frogroom was being kept at 60 (with the generators help). When I got in the house was at 43 and frogroom was at 50...except the vivs on the floor of the racks which were 46. Everything survived except for the frogs in 2 tanks. And unfortunately, it was my 1.1 uakarii and 1.1 reticulata. So the hobby lost 2 breeding pairs of some rarer Ranitomeya If only I had thought ahead and moved them higher! Or if we hadn't used all the propane tanks keeping warm with the camp heater! Ahhhhhh!!!

Now, the reason it turned ok.....found eggs in both tanks that are developing. I also found 2 new Cristobal froglets, as well as the female transporting, my fantastica and summersi (first time) both transporting, first eggs in the Chazuta tank, more eggs from one of my Saripiqui pairs, and I got accepted into my first internship. All in all a pretty s***** week because of me not thinking ahead, home depots crappy products, and the dump truck drivers inability to drive in snow.

Just needed to vent a bit.

 

[thedude]

Also, my dad was curious how much money I would be out if all my frogs had died. I recommend everyone try adding there collection up when they get the chance because it just might surprise you how much money it is.

Just for the record, the money wasn't what I was worried about losing. It was obviously the living things I'm responsible for.

 

[tahir tareen]

damn sorry, thats a huge bummer! Hopefully the eggs make it. I watched my power flicker a few times this last week and was waiting for it to go out, Bellingham gets crazy windy this time of year!

 

[frogparty]

Where did you get your internship?

 

[fieldnstream]

Dang Adam that sucks! Come on down to Georgia...we don't really have to worry about stuff like that. Congrats on the internship!

 

[Pumilo]

That sucks, Adam, sorry to hear it.

 

[thedude]

Thanks guys. Ya we got some wind too. Before the power went out an Alder actually fell on my house, not much damage though.

Jason, the internship is through Dr. David Bain at the University of Washington Bothell. I'll most likely be doing habitat mapping and surveying in a local forest.

 

[frogparty]

Congratulations! Make a lot of business connections wherever you can. Habitat work is horribly underfunded and it really pays to know people so you can get the low down on upcoming work

 

[ashb]

Someones Parus won't be going on the bottom rack...

Sorry to hear that Adam, hopefully your tadpoles develop healthy and make up for your losses!

 

[thedude]

Congratulations! Make a lot of business connections wherever you can. Habitat work is horribly underfunded and it really pays to know people so you can get the low down on upcoming work

Ya my Zoology professor told me about this and said it would be a good idea to be involved since I want to transfer to UWB. I was also told I could come up with my own ideas for what to do for the internship. Any ideas? The best I could come up with is an invasive species eradication project to study the ecological effects. There has been a lot of work in that area though, so unless they have Bullfrogs on the property it won't be very helpful.

Ash, ya they are going to be up higher Now that I had a wake up call of how things can go bad very quickly, I'm more prepared. I have a stock of propane tanks and gas specifically for situations like that. I won't have any problems next year!

Guess I know what frogs I'm getting after the sylvatica. These were the first good eggs I've found from the reticulata too

 

[ashb]

Is conservation work out of the question? Maybe monitoring the population of Oregon spotted frogs or other endangered species...(Experts prepare vanishing frogs for release into wild | Local & Regional | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News)

 

[thedude]

Is conservation work out of the question? Maybe monitoring the population of Oregon spotted frogs or other endangered species...(Experts prepare vanishing frogs for release into wild | Local & Regional | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News)

That is a good idea, but Oregon Spotted frogs are only found in a few locations in Washington now and this is not anywhere close to one of them. This is something like 100 acres left on the outskirts of a city. The risks to amphibians here is already pretty high with human interaction, and then you add Bullfrogs which are commonly found in urban wetlands and it would be a losing battle. However, I was thinking if I could do a Bullfrog eradication project, the natives that normally breed in permanent wetlands would absolutely come back (I know from past experience). One of those species being Rana aurora, which are near threatened.

Really something like that would be great someday, but this is really a small internship.

 

[frogparty]

I guess your internship project needs to be tailored to the area you are allowed to work in. I can give you amphibian and salmonid sampling protocols we used inWDFW. There seems to still be work in conjunction with the fish and forests agreement that needs to be done.
You are a smart guy, and I know you'll come up with a great idea for your internship.

 

[thedude]

I guess your internship project needs to be tailored to the area you are allowed to work in. I can give you amphibian and salmonid sampling protocols we used inWDFW. There seems to still be work in conjunction with the fish and forests agreement that needs to be done.
You are a smart guy, and I know you'll come up with a great idea for your internship.

Thanks Jason! Ya feel free to message me when you get the chance. If I wind up doing something with amphibians it shouldn't be a problem for me. I was hoping to come up with something else as well. I was just accepted, and because of the snow nothing has been done or decided yet, so I haven't even seen the forest/wetlands so I'm not even completely sure what I'll be working with.

Thanks for the help.

 

[ktwilliams_28]

Sorry about your loss. We too lost power at our place for 6 days and had no generator. I bought a indoor propane heater for the frog room. There were a couple scary moments but all frogs made it out alive.

 

[thedude]

Glad to hear everything turned out ok. Isn't it incredibly stressful though?

 

[ExoticPocket]

Man, I'm stressing that my power will go out..... Gonna go ape when the power goes out, running back and forth to the room with bottles filled with warm water and towels. My dads getting a generator and I was wondering how much a heat pad would heat a tank? The exo-terra rainforest ones... Sucks about your frogs but congrats on the internship!

-Alex

 

[ktwilliams_28]

Glad to hear everything turned out ok. Isn't it incredibly stressful though?

It really is. I was constantly thinking about them, worried that next time I entered the room I would find a grave yard of frozen frogs. Thankfully that never happened.