As
the most recent immigrants, the Caribbean frogs have received the most
notoriety. Like all new invaders, the first few years resulted in
unprecedented proliferation heightened by the fact that coqui's have
voracious appetites, do not undergo a tadpole stage so do not need an
aquatic environment, and form froglets relatively quickly.
The Hawai'i Department of Agriculture
estimates that there may be more than 10,000 frogs per acre on the Big
Island. Such a high density of frogs can consume more than
50,000 insects per night which | may endanger Hawaii's native insect and birds. However, the major problem is that of noise. At a distance of 0.5 m (1.5 feet) coqui calls measure 80-90 decibels (comparable
to a lawnmower). In Puerto Rico, their native
habitat, the nocturnal singing of coqui's is beloved but the frogs
are not present in high density. Their numbers have
declined primarily becasue of the presence of many predators such as snakes, screech owls and cuckoos which
Hawaii lacks.
Of immediate concern is the economic threat to Hawai'ian
plant growers. Sales of orchids and other
| tropical plants are
being
rejected because of possible contamination of Caribbean frogs. The College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources have posted ways of controlling coqui
that include hand-capture, anesthetizing and freezing, spraying with
citric acid, and setting pipe traps. Not surprisingly, a backlash
movement has grown consisting of individuals who are questioning
the need
to eliminate these otherwise cute frogs.
Clearly, the
coqui frog, must be
controlled. It is has already been
conceded that complete eradication is probably not possible. |
