In addition to counting, cataloging, and photographing wild frogs in the field, Hayes and his students collect specimens to bring back to the lab and start a breeding stock. I won't work with an animal that we can't raise in the lab. Dr. Hayes discusses how his work in the field presents unique opportunities for scientific discovery. Most of the year he's surrounded by tens of thousands of hand-reared frogs in his lab, but Professor Hayes is all too aware of the perils that frogs face in the wild, including pollution, habitat destruction, and human predation. In many cultures throughout the world, including in the U.S., Europe, and Southeast Asia, frogs are food.
Humans also have significant impact on frog habitat as high-level consumers of natural resources.
In one day in one city, I must have seen thousands of live skates, and tens of thousands of shrimp and little fish in barrels. It makes you realize what pressure we put on the environment. We do it here too, but in the U.S. ours is all packaged as meat. We grow a lot of our food, but that also puts a lot of pressure on the land. We're huge consumers.