Are Frogs Being Eaten to Extinction?

Put down that fried frog leg! Demand for the delicacy is depleting regional populations to the point of no return, according to conservationists. Culinary use is even more of a threat to amphibians than climate change, disease and habitat degradation.

The National University of Singapore is calling for more regulation and monitoring to prevent frogs from being eaten into extinction.

From New Scientist:

Statistics on imports and exports of frog legs are sparse as few countries keep track of the amount of meat harvested and consumed domestically.

According to UN figures, global trade has increased in the past 20 years. France – not surprisingly – and the US are the two largest importers; with France importing between 2500 and 4000 tonnes of frog meat each year since 1995.

But although frog legs are often thought of in the West as a quintessentially French dish, they are also very popular in Asia.

Bickford estimates that between 180 million to over a billion frogs are harvested each year. “That is based on both sound data and an estimate of local consumption for just Indonesia and China,” he says. “The actual number I suspect is quite a bit larger and my 180 million bare minimum is almost laughably conservative.”

According to David Bickford of the National University of Singapore, European kitchens used to source frog meat locally, but the fact that they’re now importing it from Indonesia suggests that local populations have been overharvested. As many frogs as Indonesia sends to other countries, some studies suggest the amount of frog meat consumed within the country’s borders could be between two and seven times what is exported.

I am disgusted to admit (especially as a vegetarian) that my grandmother fed me frog legs as a child and didn’t tell me what they were. Innocent that I was, it never crossed my mind that the little wing-looking things on my plate were actually frogs – I didn’t find out until my father told me years later. And yes, they do in fact taste like chicken.

Link [New Scientist]
Photo credit: Flickr user jmagnusphoto

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