Amphibiophiles already know the differences between frogs and toads (main one – frogs have teeth, toads don’t) and that the myth about warts and toads is bunk.
But for the rest of us, those whose knowledge of “frogga” – as they were known in the Old English days – starts with Kermit and ends with the green hop-a-long in the backyard, the new “Frogs – A Chorus of Colors” exhibit at Georgia Aquarium is an enlightening pit stop.
A visit to the small gallery is included in the aquarium’s new “Total Ticket,” and the traveling display of 83 frogs and toads in 15 individual habitats will occupy the upstairs exhibition room for about a year.
This particular collection of amphibians, which most recently came from a children’s museum in Indianapolis, ranges from the magnificently colored, inch-long dart poison frogs to Jabba, the 2-pound-plus African bullfrog splayed in his habitat like a lump of chocolate pudding, patiently awaiting his monthly treat of a dead baby mouse.
Sandy Mangold, zookeeper for Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland in Allenwood, Pa., and current caregiver for the frogs while at the aquarium, said about 700 crickets are shipped in every two weeks for feeding the 18 different species, while fruit flies, superworms and mealworms are also supper.
Most feedings will be completed early morning, before the aquarium opens. But those who might catch a zookeeper providing a snack will see how frogs swallows with their eyeballs or, in the case of the long-nosed horned frogs, hide under a mossy enclave, waiting for an unsuspecting cricket to skitter their way.
“They find a spot and they might not move for weeks,” Mangold said of the brown species identified by their triangular upper eyelids.
Visitors will also learn, through placards posted at the habitats and the aquarium staff who will meander to answer questions, that smokey jungle frogs, with their beefy extremities, are the common donor of frog legs for diners in South America (the American bullfrog serves that purpose here); and that Chinese gliding frogs will change color for thermal regulations, and, in a Hulk-like move, turn dark green when angry.
While the frogs were quiet during a visit this week, Mangold said early mornings and evenings are when they engage in their chorus of croaking and ribbeting – aka, communication.
Interactive stations are set up throughout the aquarium to both teach and bring attention to the exhibit, while in the “Chorus of Colors” room, the “Froguts” machine allows visitors to virtually dissect a frog.
But the most intriguing of the amphibians might be the tank of 20 American bullfrog tadpoles, which will, through the span of the exhibit, grow into adult frogs.
And that is no myth.
Exhibit preview
“Frogs – a Chorus of Colors” at Georgia Aquarium
10 a.m.-5 p.m. (Sunday-Friday), 9 a.m.-6 p.m. (Saturday). Included in “Total Ticket” ($29.95, Monday-Thursday, $34.95 Friday-Sunday and holidays). 225 Baker St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-581-4000, www.georgiaaquarium.org.
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