They grab each wiggling animal, weigh and measure it, and check it for deformities. The pond is one of 15 sites across Minnesota where researchers are surveying frog populations, and testing the water and sediments of the ponds where the frogs live. They're searching for any possible connection between the frogs' environment and their abnormal development. That same day, she speaks to the local press - television and newspaper reporters who have driven out from Fargo and Grand Forks. We want to see if there's any tie between when the abnormalities appear in the tadpole, and all the different things we're measuring.
Nobody knows that yet.
No one expects to solve this within a summer of a year or two. We're hearing from scientists in federal agencies that it may take 3-5 years to solve this thing. Some feel it is one thing, etc., parasites, immune system. The geographic range of the problem is another unknown. Scientists can't say whether high rates of frog deformities reported in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont, and Quebec are indications of isolated hot spots, or the first signs of a much more widespread problem.