"FROGS ARE CROAKING"

Jason uncrumples the papers in his hand. "Okay," he says. "Here's the deal. Basically, all over the world, frogs are dying. Populations that have been stable suddenly go into decline or disappear. But it's weird. Not all frogs are croaking - I mean, dying. Some are doing better than ever. And a species dying off in one place may still be doing well someplace else."

"Huh," says Carolyn.

"People are worried, because dying frogs might be an early warning that something's terribly wrong

with our ecosystem. 'Canary in the coal mine' - whatever that means. So like the people who study frogs are all over this. They aren't finding one single cause for all frogs. More often, they find that each population has its own particular cause for decline."

"Such as?" you wonder.

Jason shuffles paper. "Water pollution," he says. "That's a big one. Frogs hang out around water, and usually lay their eggs in water. So chemicals can wreck the eggs, or they enter frog bodies right through the skin.

Frogs are really sensitive. So if there's anything wrong with the water it often shows up in the frogs first."

"What else?"

"Loss of habitat. Uh, basically frogs like it when things are swampy. But people don't. So people clean up the swamps and then the frogs have no place to live."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah." He makes a face. "But it's totally gross."

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