But how about 2,000 ten-pound frogs?
Here's the CBC:
quote:BEN CHIN: They're big, bad, and on the hunt tonight across British Columbia. American bull frogs are sinister predators and not very choosy about their prey. Their population is also spreading fast. Now researchers are demanding provincial and federal authorities leap into action. Natalie Clancy reports.
NATALIE CLANCY (Reporter): In this pond, the American bull frog is king. No more ducks, no more goslings, only these frogs. Karen MacGregor says they even attacked her cat.
KAREN MACGREGOR (): Well I think he grabbed her by the hind leg is what he did, and then he tried to drown her. The frog bit here and pulled down. Tore this part here.
CLANCY: MacGregor's cat is still hunting the frogs. So are a team of researchers. In this tiny pond alone, they've caught fourteen hundred giant-sized tadpoles. This could chase my cat?
LESLIE KRISTOFF (Biologist): Probably. Once it gets bigger. Not this size.
CLANCY: The bull frogs are only in BC because entrepreneurs brought them here to breed them for restaurants.
KRISTOFF: They were originally brought here for that reason in the '30s and '40s to sell as bull frog legs. That didn't fly, no one was really into that and so they released them all and this is what we've got now, a huge invasion. They're really strong. It's hard to hold on to these guys.
CLANCY: They thrive here because they're too big for any natural predator except for the odd, brave heron. So they're driving frogs native to BC to the brink of extinction. Researchers hope to prove that their work of catching and destroying the frogs can put a dent in their exploding population. They say more ponds should be cleaned out like this one before it's too late.
KRISTOFF: They're all across the lower mainland and spreading. They can move up to a kilometre and a half in an evening. One jump is six feet easily for an adult bull frog.
MACGREGOR: And if there's fourteen hundred tadpoles that come out of my pond, can you imagine what it's like for the whole of Campbell Valley? And you can hear them everywhere. At night when this frog, he'll go uhhhh uhhh uhhhh and they usually do it five times. And then there will be a pause and then you hear somebody respond from another pond.
CLANCY: So the hunting continues. But each female produces twenty thousand eggs a year, and there are thousands of ponds to check for big, powerful and hungry frogs. Natalie Clancy, CBC News, Langley.
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