Adopt-A-Pond

CONTENTS
May 1995

My first experience with frog dissection took place in a high school science class. I remember little of this experience...perhaps a little anticipation at the thought of cutting into the flesh of an animal...but mostly making a mess of my dissection and not locating the body parts so well illustrated in the frog dissection guide. My frog was a failure and my mark out of ten reflected my inexperience and lighthearted banter that surrounded the whole dissection experience. To say the least, that frog's sacrifice was wasted on this biology student.

My lasting recollection of frog dissections is not a pleasant one. Our first year university biology experiment involved the use of a live pithed frog (a process which mashes the brain so that the frog is brain dead but its heart and nervous system still functions). Without going into the details, not one of our student groups could effectively pith the frog, inflicting a great deal of unnecessary pain on those helpless animals. Thirty years later, I now understand that this was the final insult in a long journey for these frogs.

Along with thousands of other leopard frogs, "our" frog had been plucked from their Lake Winnipeg habitat and shipped in sacks or barrels to a U.S. supply house. Thousands of frogs were kept in large tanks and thousands died from the stress of shipment or the poor conditions under which they were housed. Having paid only pennies for each frog, it was not worth treating frogs for their injuries. Nor were the frogs fed.

The lucky frogs were killed soon after arrival. Some were injected with dyes to better identify their circulatory system- red for arterial flow and blue for the veins. Some were preserved for high school dissections. The rest were shipped live to medical labs, scientific researchers, and naive students.

I have heard many debates on the value of dissections for students, yet remain unconvinced that it is appropriate to kill a live frog to learn the lessons of basic biology. After all, we did not split any atoms to learn about their structure and the potential for release of huge amounts of energy. I am sure that part of the dissection issue was the lack of any appreciable cost to acquiring wild caught amphibians and little concern for the value of these "lower" vertebrates.

I again faced the issue of frog dissections when my own daughter announced that frog dissections were part of her grade ten curriculum. As a parent, I was reluctant to pass on a knee-jerk reaction to this issue and preferred to reason through the costs and benefits of dissections as part of our understanding of comparative anatomy. I encouraged my daughter to discuss the issue with her instructor but was not prepared for the derision which met her questions. Obviously we have not come a long way since I internalized my own shock at what I had to do to gain acceptance (and a grade). I strongly suspect that my daughter's questions touched a nerve, and as part of the instructor's own guilt-feelings, the issue was never allowed to be opened for debate.

I was particularly bothered by the mis-information that the instructor passed on to my daughter about the frogs being captive raised. The real issue in my mind is the true cost of taking animals from the wild and often not on a sustainable basis. If the animals were captive raised and given the veterinary care and appropriate diet to raise a frog to adulthood, the cost of the frog would be too prohibitive to be used in high school dissections.

While wrestling with these issues I received a telephone call from Charles and Simon asking for assistance in reviewing the dissection CD that Digital Frog International had developed. I was unprepared for the quality and impact of the graphics they have developed. As well, there is now a potential for all students to share in the excitement of learning anatomy as a basis for linkages to physiology and ecology. Dissection has finally realized its true role in the school curriculum! It is indeed a rare experience to share in the excitement that Digital Frog generates in their faith that they have advanced both the possibilities for education while making a significant contribution to the conservation of our planet's biodiversity.

I could go on to outline the importance of what they have accomplished and the respect I have for their effective use of technology. However, I asked Simon and Charles to contribute to Metro Toronto Zoo's Adopt-A-Pond Wetland Conservation Programme newsletter,"Amphibian Voice", and their story follows. I am very excited about their holistic approach to amphibian biology, and encourage all biology teachers to add this disc to their library and curriculum.

Bob Johnson is Curator of amphibians and Reptiles at Metro Toronto Zoo and past Chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force which examines the nature and extent of amphibian declines around the world.