Kneeling on the edge of a tank the size of a child's wading pool, Harry Greer thrust his arm into the cool water and scooped up three frogs. He smiled like a proud parent as the tiny green and black spotted frogs squirmed in his hand. He bragged about how he had raised the endangered amphibians from eggs to tadpoles to juvenile frogs only steps from his prison cell.
Since spring, Greer and fellow inmate Albert Delp have spent the bulk of their days inside a small fenced-off area at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center, in Littlerock, Wash., fussing over and fattening several dozen frogs -- all of them Oregon spotted frogs, animals once widespread in the Puget Sound area.
The effort focuses on raising the frogs until they get big enough to no longer be a snack for natural predators.
"They would like to re-establish them back at Fort Lewis and I'm part of the project," said Greer, who is serving time for robbery.
With guidance from a senior researcher from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and staff from nearby Evergreen State College, the two men started with 80 Oregon spotted frog eggs in early April. As the eggs grew into tadpoles then into frogs, the two men have been responsible for the frequent feedings and tank-water changes. The whole time they have taken detailed notes for state researchers.
Greer, 45, and Delp, 47, admit that they had never heard of the Oregon spotted frog - or even recall taking biology in school - but the results of their 85-cent-per-hour job has stunned researchers. Since the project started, only eight of their frogs have died - a figure significantly lower than at Woodland Park Zoo, the Oregon Zoo and Northwest Trek, which are also part of the project to rear the Oregon spotted frog in captivity.
Marc P. Hayes, the Department of Fish and Wildlife senior research scientist leading the effort, said that he had doubted the success of the project behind bars. But his concerns vanished after he saw how much time Greer and Delp could devote to the project.
"They have the time to address care on a level that is not possible with those other institutions," Hayes said. "They baby those things literally night and day. They can look at them every two hours and feed them at a higher rate. They have the time to give them a much closer level of care."
For Greer and Delp, who is serving time for felony drunken driving, their success has led them to view the other research sites competitively. They don't hesitate giving their frogs an extra cricket or two, with the hope of beefing up the tiny frogs. Hayes said the frogs in the prison's 300-gallon tank appear larger and stronger than those being raised at the other sites.
"We have a species that has been eliminated for its historical range in the Puget Sound region," said Rich Sartor, zoological curator at Northwest Trek. "Our whole point is to take them into captivity for a while and head start them, get them up to a size that we think will let them make it once they are turned loose. You want to have a lot of big, happy, healthy frogs at the end of the day. So far Cedar Creek - they're champs."
More:
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/07/washington_inmates_busy_raisin.htmlNow there's a win/win
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
