Oohs and aahs filled Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific on Friday as scores of students wandered up the stairs, past the Tropical Pacific and around the Reef Crest, and into an amphibian wonderland.
“Frogs: Dazzling and Disappearing,” which features over a dozen types of frogs of myriad colors and unusual traits, debuted to entertain and enlighten the young visitors.
The exhibit showcased the varying environments and unique abilities that frogs have adapted over the millions of years they’ve had to evolve in water and on land.
“We hope to bring awareness to frog conservation efforts through this exhibit,” said Claire Atkinson, senior manager of communications. “Due to black-market trade, habitat destruction and an amphibian fungal disease, frogs are going endangered faster than most animals.”
Hundreds of students filed into the new exhibit, eager to see the creatures sourced from institutions across the globe. They were offered a peek into the different frog habitats that span rainforests, deserts and arctic tundra — only avoiding the continent of Antarctica.
Among the aquarium’s new residents:
• A magnificent tree frog, brought in from Australia where it doesn’t actually live in trees, perched out on a leaf.
• A Northern Pacific tree frog, whose noises are often heard in movies, croaked over a loudspeaker.
• Blue poison dart frogs, which extract their toxicity from ants in the wild, shone bright blue and yellow, telling visitors to beware. It had little effect, however, because they are no longer feasting on toxic ants in their new home.
• A mossy frog showed off its unique form of camouflage. Students stood at their tank for minutes on end as the waterfall provided the frogs the perfect cover to hide in plain sight.
“One thing I learned was frogs camouflage so they won’t get eaten by predators. They can do it in any place around the world,” said Joshua, visiting on a field trip from Wilmington Elementary School (schools requested that students’ full names not be shared in this report). “We have to protect the frogs by not destroying their habitat so their prey won’t find them or they can disappear.”
Atkinson hopes viewers will be able to see the life cycle of the amphibian, portrayed in giant cutouts along the walls, play out through the critically endangered Panamanian golden frog. Due to over-collection and habitat loss, this frog can no longer be seen in the wild. But aquarium staff plan to breed the species, a national symbol in Panama, to help rebuild its population.
“We need to protect their environment by putting less fossil fuels in the air and keeping plastic out of the ocean,” said Luis, a third-grader at Fourth Street Elementary School. “We learned about animals in school and now we learned how to help the endangered frogs. It’s really cool!”
Atkinson is hopeful that the message of conservation will hit home via the frogs — as well as two other exhibits that opened Friday.
• “Our Water Future” gave visitors opportunities to explore how they can make a conservation impact at home by using water-friendly appliances and planting drought-tolerant gardens.
The popular “Make-It-Rain” table allowed viewers to see the effect that traffic and pollution have on coastal waters.
• “The Mangrove Species” offered a look into the world of the archerfish, which shoots a jet of water at insects living in the trees from underwater.
Atkinson believes the display will help the public appreciate all the life that mangrove trees support — and hopefully become active in conserving them.
Like frogs, mangroves are found in different parts of the world but are disappearing at a quick pace. Here in Southern California, they dig their roots deep into the soil, which helps protect coastlines from erosion.
Atkinson said rising sea levels and coastal development are contributing to the loss of the trees.
“If you build a resort then you want it on the water because that’s where the beauty is,” Atkinson said. “But if we want to keep the beauty then it’s especially important for us in SoCal to help maintain this habitat since we are the ones living on the coast.”