They are typically smaller than a backyard swimming pool and shallow, less than a meter deep. These temporary wetlands and the adjacent woods are habitat for many species of amphibians that lay their eggs in water but live as adults in forests. Habitat loss from development threatens local frogs and salamanders. Amphibians are experiencing disturbing population losses globally. Golden toads in Costa Rica, for example, seem to have vanished and are assumed extinct.
Bullfrogs eat other amphibians.
Native to the Eastern U.S., they have become a problem in California, where they are an introduced species. There are important ecological reasons for concern about the loss of any native species. Ecological damage from species loss has the potential to create real and significant damage to agriculture, the economy and public health. Problems and lost opportunities beyond our present ability to predict can result from the loss of even the humblest creature in the web of life. In The Thunder Tree, he mourns the incremental local extinction of beautiful, colorful, interesting and inspirational species of all kinds.