United States: Utah is awash in bull frogs, locals encouraged to… eat them
On the other side of the Atlantic, it’s raining frogs. It is at least the feeling that worries the authorities of the state of Utah in the United States which invited the inhabitants to fight against the invasion of the species of bullfrogs. A few days ago as spotted BFM TVthe Utah Department of Natural Resources, used National Invasive Species Awareness Week to remind residents that they can capture as many as they want.
And even more: they invite the population, in a message posted on the social network Twitterto eat this invasive species, a priori “very good”. In response, some Internet users then ask how to capture, kill or even cook them. While some claim to have never seen this species in their part of the state. Maybe also because part of Utah is currently covered in snow.
One of the officials of the Utah Department of Natural Resources then explains to the site Fox Weather that “these bull frogs can eat anything and everything, like snakes, fish, toads and mice”. The Lithobates catesbeianus, from its scientific name, can weigh up to 600 g. Much bigger than classic frogs.
Also considered invasive in France
Green or brown in color with brown spots, this frog has also been classified as an invasive alien species in France since February 2018. It has few predators in the ponds and ponds it likes.
“It is found in Aquitaine, in the Center region, in the east of France. His arrival in Île-de-France is therefore plausible and it would be really serious, ” predicted to the Parisian biologist Emmanuelle Sarat, coordinator of the EEE resource center, a structure led by the French Office for Biodiversity and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Many communities in the southwest are also undertaking operations to combat its development.
It is capable of transmitting fatal pathologies to other amphibians. She would have arrived in France after being voluntarily brought back from the United States in 1968 for an ornamental pond in Gironde, according to the invasive alien species resource center.
