A 3 year old relative has watched tadpoles turn to Frogs. We want to let them go. The Tadpole Co. we bought them from says never let tame reared frogs go as they cannot survive in the wild.
The pet store lady says frogs are never “tame”, mommy frogs don’t teach hunting n’ hopping & these guys have as good a chance as any wild frogs.
What is the Straight Dope? Can they be released into the Wild?
No, I didn’t feed them using a Frog hand puppet like they do for baby birds. On the other hand, we didn’t handle or pet them just fed them and watched them grow
It depends on two things: The type of frog, and where you live in the world. I’ve seen two types of frogs in those “Frog Farm” deals. One is the leopard frog (Rana pipiens.) If your frog is greenish or brownish and covered with spots, that’s probably what it is. They live pretty much throughout temperate America and can be safely released into the wild. On the other hand, I have also seen the African Clawed Frog (Xenopus) in these kits, due to the relative ease of raising them. These are bizzare-looking, with a flattened,pointed head, and are fully aquatic. If this is your frog, you most likely can’t release him where you live. It can and will survive in the warmer regions of North America, but it can displace native frogs if it were allowed to reproduce.
But the truth is, there are no 'tame frogs, and any frog, no matter how long a pet, will have no problem finding food (though it may have lost its fear of humans.)
The frogs would probably survive just fine. That’s the problem.
Do you know what species of frog you have? If you do, are they native to your area? If you release them, you could potentially be introducing non-native fauna into your local ecology. Sometimes when this occurs, it’s fairly benign. Just as often, though, it creates enormous problems.
Exotic species fairly regularly outcompete local ones for food and other resources. Many times they aren’t recognised as potential prey/predators by the natives, and their populations explode. Examples? European starlings, zebra mussels, and kudzu (yeah, I know it’s a plant, but still) should be familiar to anyone living in North America. All non-natives, all with huge populations, all putting pressure on local species.
A quick check of Google under “tadpoles sale” shows that there’s absolutely no way of telling what species of frogs you’ve got, unless you can post a picture online so we can help you identify them, or use a Field Guide to Frogs to identify them yourself at home.
One thing’s for sure, though–if the place you bought them from told you explicitly, “Do not release them,” then why in the world are you even considering releasing them?
Sorry, but to me it’s a no-brainer. Either they wouldn’t survive, or as The Hand says, they would survive, and the chances of introducing some harmful non-native species are just not worth the risk. Look at what happened with cane toads in Australia.
No, don’t release them. If you’re tired of them, give them to a pet store or a zoo or a neighbor kid.
