Category Archives: Froggy Foibles

Researchers in the misty mountains of the Ecuadorian Andes have discovered a new species of terrestrial frog and named it after the pioneering British rock band Led Zeppelin. Pristimantis ledzeppelin, known in English as Led Zeppelin’s Rain Frog, was found by the scientists David Brito-Zapata and Carolina Reyes-Puig, which straddles south-east Ecuador and north-east Peru. The small frog, which has coppery-red eyes and a mottled, yellow, brown, black and orange skin, is a member of the huge and rapidly expanding Pristimantis genus.  …“The name honours Led Zeppelin and their extraordinary music,” the pair explain in the journal. They warn that Pristimantis ledzeppelin risks being trampled underfoot as the rich biodiversity of its habitat is endangered.

This video will mesmerize you! Sent in by Denise – thanks for sharing. 

As plenty of businesses have been affected by quarantine, many have begun to look for ways to unload their overstocked supply of product. For the Guinness brewery in Ireland, that meant coming up with a way to use up all their leftover kegs from bars closing around the world. What they decided to do was use that beer to fertilize Christmas trees as part of an environmentally friendly forestry project. …Guinness went around collecting kegs that would have otherwise gone to waist. ““The vast majority of the beer goes to willow and Christmas tree plantations, it’s used as nutrients in those farms,” said Aidan Crowe, director of operations at the brewery. Hopefully the trees grow quickly so beer fans can have their Guinness tree by Christmas.

Gold prospectors first discovered the so-called Shigir Idol in Russia’s Ural mountain range in 1890… the oldest known surviving work of wooden ritual art in the world. More than a century after its discovery… new research suggests the sculpture was crafted about 12,500 years ago, at the end of the Last Ice Age. Its ancient creators carved the work from a single larch tree with 159 growth rings, the authors write in the study. According to Sarah Cascone of Artnet News, the new findings indicate that the rare artwork predates Stonehenge, which was created around 5,000 years ago, by more than 7,000 years. It’s also twice as old as the Egyptian pyramids, which date to roughly 4,500 years ago.

Before frat parties, there were frog ponds. Literal breeding grounds for some of the world’s noisiest bachelors, these lusty pools are where amphibians gather to woo mates. …Some spots host hundreds of males from a dozen species, each belting out serenades that can register at more than 100 decibels apiece—close to what you’d hear at a rock concert. Sounds this intense can cause hearing loss… When scientists visit these ponds, they often don earplugs. “It hurts our ears,” says Kim Hoke, a biologist at Colorado State University. …If frogs of the female persuasion can’t identify their own species’ calls in this terrifying soundscape, they may lose out on an opportunity to reproduce. Fortunately, evolution has come up with a clever trick… [their lungs accomplish this by] muffling the ruckus of other species. Frog lungs, Lee’s team has shown, are basically noise-canceling headphones that also happen to oxygenate the blood.

Archaeologists digging on the banks of the Vesle River near Reims in northern France in 2008 unearthed something unusual. They found three large and remarkably well-preserved ancient Roman wooden wine barrels. …The barrels were constructed almost exclusively from materials harvested in Northern Europe: the barrel staves were made from European silver fir, the hoops from hazelnut tree saplings, and the sealant from  pine wood pitch . The barrels were built to hold up to 317 gallons of wine, which would be enough to fill 1,500 bottles manufactured to modern-day standards. …The Roman wine barrels are now on public display in Reims, at an exhibition sponsored by the French wine-making company Champagne Taittinger.

Kizhi Pogost – This wooden complex was built in the 17th century. Constructors used no nails (apart from the domes and roof shingles) and delivered thousands of logs from the mainland — two difficult tasks at the time. …Kolomenskoye – At the time of construction in the early 17th century, Kolomenskoye consisted of a wooden palace, a church made of white bricks and a few other buildings. …Sutyagin House – often called a ‘wooden skyscraper’, it is reportedly the world’s tallest wooden residential house. 

There’s a new cookbook out from a, quote, “artisan baker and cook” in the U.K. named Julia Georgallis called “How to Eat Your Christmas Tree”. And it features dozens of recipes you can make using your tree. For example, Christmas-Cured Fish uses almost a pound of needles for decoration and flavoring.  With Christmas Tree Pickles, you throw a handful of needles into a jar with your pickles for a month. There’s even ICE CREAM flavored with blue spruce needles and ginger. Julia says she created the book so people would get better use out of their trees . . . rather than chopping down 30 million trees every year and then throwing them away.

Sometimes our news filters pull up interesting forestry stories – who doesn’t want this amazing black forest cake? Yum! This has look-at-me written alllll over it. Standing at six layers tall, it does require some freezing and planning but it’s all about assembly rather than any true ‘doing’ on your part. Even the brownie mixture is coming from a box*, making this a very low-key way to make a showstopping Christmas dessert.