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Drawing a bead on bullfrogs Mail Tribune photos by Mark Freeman Wildlife herpetologist Simon Wray checks a bullfrog trap in a private pond in the Antelope Creek drainage. Wray was hoping to find the mate of a male bullfrog he shot three weeks ago, but found no trace of the voracious amphibian. The bullfrogs, not a species native to Oregon, eat western pond turtles by gobbling them whole. The male bullfrog pictured at right measures 15 inches long. When Wray killed it, the animal had a 6-inch newt in its stomach. Biologist says non-native frogs threaten sensitive pond turtles By Mark Freeman WHITE CITY � In what is one small shot for man, Simon Wray wants to create one great splat for turtle-kind. Wray, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife herpetologist, is trying to shoot or trap a large female bullfrog whose presence in a small private pond in the Antelope Creek drainage is threatening the state�s healthiest known population of western pond turtles. The non-native bullfrogs could eat their way through the pond�s 200-odd turtles, which are the only native turtles in Jackson County and a species considered a short hop from qualifying for Endangered Species Act protection. Moreover, if the frogs are allowed to breed, the half-acre pond could become overrun with the turtle-slurping amphibians by next year and in no time the turtle sanctuary would be like another bad Budweiser commercial. So the trespassing bullfrog has got to go. "I�ve got no animosity toward the bullfrog," said Wray as he carried binoculars and a .410-caliber shotgun to the pond Friday in search of the frog. "They just shouldn�t be there. They can have such a dramatic impact on the native population." This is the amphibious version of the native-versus-non-native debate that resonates in Oregon from man all the way down the food chain to mollusks. But in the world of wildlife management, the natives always get preferential treatment. In this case, the small pond on a sprawling 400-acre hillside ranch has a population of western pond turtles unmatched in Oregon both in numbers and in age distribution. This turtle species is on Oregon�s sensitive species list because the population has a higher concentration of older, mature turtles and a curious lack of younger turtles. But that�s not the case in this pond, where Wray consistently has found that juveniles account for 50 percent or more of the turtles he�s trapped over seven years of study here. On a summer excursion to the pond, he heard the telltale croak of a male bullfrog emanate from the water, and he knew the turtles were in danger. "I felt sick to my stomach," Wray said. Bullfrogs were brought to Oregon a century ago for food, but people soured on the frog-leg diet and most of the creatures were released into ponds and creeks. The nearest frogs to Wray�s turtle pond were 2 miles and 700 feet of elevation away, yet the pair had migrated into turtle-land and seemed ready to set up house. "They�re not intrinsically evil or bad," Wray said. "They�re just very, very good at what they do �survive. Unfortunately, the end result is not so good." They would have to be removed before they set roots. "Bullfrogs are the cockroaches of the amphibian world, and I don�t mean that negatively," Wray said. "It�s just that, no matter what you do, they�ll survive handsomely." During an ensuing trip three weeks ago, Wray heard the male bullfrog and shot it dead. It measured a massive 15 inches long and had a rough-skin newt � an animal whose skin has six times the toxins of rattlesnake venom � partially digested in its stomach. "And that," Wray said, "was the smaller frog." Before he could shoot it, the female leaped from the mud into the nearby brush, breaking twigs as it went. Wray checked his frog traps Friday and found neither the female nor any signs of tadpoles. The female may have been eaten, simply hopped off to find a new beau or remains hidden within the turtle world. "The world of the turtle is safe for another day," he said. "But if they got up here once, they�ll be back. It�s when, not if." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA