21% Of Male Frogs In CT Suburban Area Are Hermaphrodites - Incidence Higher Than In Rural Areas

[hatrack]

Just as frogs’ mating season arrives, a study by a Yale professor raises a troubling issue. How many frogs will be clear on their role in the annual springtime ritual?

Common frogs that make their homes in suburban areas are more likely than their rural counterparts to develop the reproductive abnormalities previously found in fish in the Potomac and Mississippi Rivers, according to the study by David Skelly, a professor of ecology at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Dr. Skelly’s research found that 21 percent of male green frogs, Rana clamitans, taken from suburban Connecticut ponds are hermaphrodites, with immature eggs growing in their testes.

The study is the latest in a decade’s worth of research that has found intersex characteristics in water-dwelling species like sharp-tooth catfish in South Africa, small-mouth bass on the Potomac and shovelnose sturgeon in the Mississippi. Previous studies, particularly those by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and in the West Virginia office of the United States Geological Survey, suggested a strong link between the abnormalities and agriculture, as well as a possible link to atrazine, a common herbicide. But the Yale study found that intersex frogs were more concentrated in suburban and urban areas.

Dr. Skelly’s study, presented at a seminar at the University of Connecticut, is being submitted for publication. He looked at a common amphibian, the green frog, what he called the “Look, Mom, I found a frog” frog. He analyzed the landscapes within the Connecticut River Valley, where abnormalities were more likely to be found.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/science/08frog.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[KT2000]

1. They say that homeowners

use 8 times the chemical yard products that formers use. They use more products and use excess amounts.

[Usrename]

2. Metrosexual frogs.

I thought this post was going to be about morality and the breakdown of the family unit in the inner cities.

[nichomachus]

3. They warned us this would happen if we didn't ban gay marriage

[smoogatz]

5. I thought that was box-turtles.

:shrug:

[smoogatz]

4. Maybe it's all the estrogen from birth control pills.

It's bound to end up in the water supply, no?

[KaptBunnyPants]

6. Male sperm count is down sharply since the 1950s...

We're going to have to deal intelligently with endocrine disruptors before we sterilize ourselves and everything else on this unfortunate little planet. Fish, frogs, and people, maleness is under chemical attack across the world while conservatives distract idiots with threats to their manhood such as gay people and assertive women.

[tanstaafl]

8. Boxers vs Briefs n/t

[happyslug]

9. That old report, I thought it was killed years ago.

What happen, and this is from memory, was the result of comparing two studies, done 30 years apart. When you looked at the sperm count in both studies, it was found that the number of sperm produced by men were lower in the Second study then the first study. The comparison of these two studies lead to the birth of the story of the drop in male sperm count.

The problem was HOW the studies were conducted. The test were the same, but the areas where the men who were tested differed. Independent of the studies it was known that men will produce more sperm if in a area of a lot of other males, but sperm count drop if the number of males drop. In the first test, the subjects were primary New York City Residents. That was (and is) a urban areas with a lot of other males. The second test was world wide, with a hugh number of males from rural areas, where less males live. Given this difference in population (All most all Urban in the First, the Second with a huge number of rural males) and the fact that rural males produce less sperm then urban males (do to having less contact with other males), when you compared the twp studies you had a drop in male sperm count.

The problem was the drop in male sperm counts was better explained by the higher percentage of urban males in the first test and the higher percentage of rural males in the Second study THEN ANY OTHER FACTOR. Thus the comparison between the two studies proved nothing, except it further confirmed the fact that males will produce more sperm base don the number of other males living close to them (i.e. Urban males produce more sperm then Rural Males).

[KaptBunnyPants]

10. I think you're wrong about this.

I've seen this verified in reputable science outlets. A bunch of recent articles pop up when I searched for "sperm count dropping".
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040105/ai_n9683312?tag=rel.res1
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_22_163/ai_103565239
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ReproductiveHealth/story?id=3451404&page=1

"There has been scientific evidence that sperm counts have been dropping worldwide over the past 50 years," said Cynthia Daniels, associate professor of political science at Rutgers University and author of "Exposing Men: the Science and Politics of Male Reproduction."

"I think the evidence is growing that chemicals in the environment do affect a man's sperm count," said Shanna Swan, director of the Center for Reproductive Epidemiology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. "It's probably not universal, but it is pretty good evidence for a decline in Western countries."

These quotes are from the abcnews article, and that is from 2007. I've seen no criticism of these studies from scientific outlets. Where did you get your information from?

[DCKit]

7. Atrazine has been linked too often to still be on the market.

I haven't bothered to search the net yet, but I saw some really different blackbirds last weekend, as well as some black geese I couldn't identify with a North American field manual and today, a robin with a black-speckled, wide, white collar. Perhaps I've just never looked so closely before, but they just didn't look right.