I want what is best for the frogs.

October 9, 2018 9:13 AM

Which is worse for the frog - being tossed (not thrown, flung or hurled) over a few feet of weeds into the water, or set down in the weeds (in which I've seen black racers and ringneck snakes, the former active during the day, the latter at night) to find the water itself?

I get small frogs and small toads in my pool. (None are bigger than a half dollar. On average they are the size of my thumbnail.) I fish them out. The toads go on the grass. I toss (not throw) frogs over a bank of weeds into the water. The weed embankment is about three feet wide and a foot and a half tall on marshy ground, so I cannot wade through it to the water without sinking to my knees in muck. Carrying the frogs and turtles to the water to actually be able to set them in the water instead of tossing them, due to logistics, involves leaving the neighborhood and circling around back to the water, a 15 minute plus walk, not so easy to do with a wriggling frog in hand. I don't want to just set them by the weeds like Mr. Hubris suggests, though, because black racers live in them and I am sure would welcome a treat of confused frog trying to find its way to the water. Mr. Hubris says tossing is too rough. I am conflicted because all I want to do really is put the animal back where it belongs and has the most chance of survival. I never thought of tossing them as hurting them before - they are fairly small, without much mass, making an audible "plop" when they go in, but not a giant splash or anything like that. The one today though was half-dollar sized and so maybe it was too big for that.

Please keep in mind why I am uneasy about just setting them down in the weeds. I once saw a video of a family which released a wild baby bunny into the backyard, I think they had nursed it until it was old enough to go out on its own or something. The rabbit was confused and while it sat there a hawk swept down and carried it off, much to the horror of the onlookers. This and the behaviour of other animals I've seen carried from one place and released in another tells me that when an animal is confused, it is that much easier for other animals to catch it or for humans to re-capture it.

What should I do? Set or toss? And please, nobody attack me. I really just want them to survive, it's bad enough for them when they have just been fished out of a chlorinated pool and absorbed an unknown quantity of chemicals.

posted by Armed Only With Hubris to Pets & Animals (15 answers total)

We recently had a frog jump into our storage unit when opening the door, causing Wifey to panic over the frog dying slowly trapped in the unit, so we moved furniture around and poked at it with a canoe paddle until it got into grabbing range...which my wife couldn't do because she was worried she would hurt it.

So, I grab the little bugger, gently but firmly, and start walking to a nearby ditch, at which point he squeezes out of my hand and jumps; my quick reflexes grab him at about eye-height, at which point he breaks free again and makes a powerful jump -- about 10' straight out from me, but landing in the weeds of the ditch, about three feet lower than where I was standing, so about a 10' fall. I saw him briefly before diving and swimming away, as froggy as I could tell from that distance.

I can only assume frogs are designed for such leaps and falls, so I'm of the opinion that as long as you're not winding up to pitch the first ball of the World Series or unnecessarily giving the frog more air than needed, and you're not trying to get him to impact on a solid surface, frogs are resilient, probably more resilient than to being chewed up by a snake. The square-cube law works in their favor.
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:31 AM on October 9, 2018 [11 favorites]

3ft toss vs weeds with snakes? 3ft is nothing. Toss the frog guilt free. They are light weight and fun fact their legs are attached to their spine in a sliding mechanism so they can absorb a lot of landing shock.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:35 AM on October 9, 2018 [14 favorites]

Also I once held a frog flat in my hand at the lake and he jumped out of my hand into the lake and his jump arc was well over 3ft.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:46 AM on October 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Use an aquarium net with a long handle? Should be able to get one that can help you reach 3 feet.
posted by aiglet at 9:51 AM on October 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

Team frog tosser here too
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:51 AM on October 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Keep or Toss?

Feel free to toss.

Here's a bit from NPR about a couple of guys from Harvard who made a wager, and then an experiment tossing frogs off a building. Don't worry, it's a happy ending. Thanks to air resistance and smaller animals having a greater surface to volume ratio.
posted by Kabanos at 10:02 AM on October 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

I'm confused by the mention of turtles in the question. If that wasn't a typo: I don't think I'd throw the turtles together with the frogs. On the other hand, you could put them temporarily in a container (but not where they might overheat) and bring them to their destination when convenient.
posted by trig at 10:26 AM on October 9, 2018

Oh, trig has a point -- don't throw turtles, they are much more fragile than a frog, unless you meant to write 'toad' instead of 'turtle'. Turtles are also better structured to prevent attacks from predators though, so pointing them in the right direction of safety should be enough.
posted by AzraelBrown at 10:38 AM on October 9, 2018

Response by poster: Whoops. "Turtles" got in there because we do get tiny baby ones from time to time, but we just set them down by the weed embankment.
posted by Armed Only With Hubris at 10:50 AM on October 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Toss half of them and set half of them by the weeds. I mean, snakes need to survive too, right?
posted by ejs at 11:02 AM on October 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

If there's anything predatory in the water, such as a bullfrog, for example, it will home in on the splash of a tossed frog, so I think I would set them in the weeds as a default.
posted by jamjam at 11:34 AM on October 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

You may also want to consider getting a wildlife ramp designed for swimming pools. It can save critters who get exhausted by trying to get out of a pool. There are many on the market and also DIY options. For those you catch yourself, I think tossing is the best option.
posted by quince at 12:02 PM on October 9, 2018 [16 favorites]

Frogs are basically self-tossing animals; hurling their bodies randomly through space is their second main line of defense if staying still and hoping nobody notices them doesn't work. They often land any which way, totally ass-over-teakettle, and seem designed to shrug it off just fine. A gentle lob into some water is nothing to them.

In fact, I would suggest tossing the toads as well. All amphibians have permeable skin which they use as sort of an accessory lung, which means that as soon as they fall into your pool, toxic chlorine starts to leach into their blood. To maximize their chance of survival, rinsing them off in some nice pond water should be job number one. Toads can swim just fine if need be, they're not going to drown.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 1:57 PM on October 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

Spanghew away!
posted by The otter lady at 2:37 PM on October 9, 2018

Frogs are pretty indestructible as far as this particular scenario goes. Toads less so. I would not toss toads, but I would (gently) toss frogs (or allow them to self-toss, as Anticipation says). Certainly they can all be tossed into water (nothing ridiculous, of course).
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:42 PM on October 10, 2018