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An illustrated hourly guide that follows twenty-four frogs as they eat, find mates, care for their young, and survive our harsh and changing planet.
In this short book, celebrated biologist Marty Crump leads readers on a worldwide field trip in search of frogs. Each chapter of Frog Day covers a single frog during a single hour, highlighting how twenty-four different species spend their time. Our day begins at midnight in Indonesia, with the rustle of leaves above. It's not a bird, but Wallace's flying frog, using its webbed feet and emerald-green skin flaps to glide through the forest canopy. In the early hours of the morning, we hear a horned marsupial frog "bopping" and a wood frog "quacking" to attract mates. At six o'clock in the morning, beneath a streetlight in Honolulu, we meet a corpulent, invasive cane toad slurping insects – and sometimes snakes, lizards, turtles, birds, and mice. At noon, we watch parenting in action as an African bullfrog bulldozes a path through the mud to free his tadpoles from a drying pond. At dusk, in a Peruvian rain forest, we observe "the ultimate odd couple" – a hairy tarantula and what looks like a tiny amphibian pet taking shelter in the spider's burrow. Other frogs make a tasty meal for this tarantula, but the dotted humming frog is a friend, eating the ants that might otherwise make a meal of the tarantula's eggs.
For each hour in our Frog Day, award-winning artist Tony Angell has depicted these scenes with his signature pen and ink illustrations. Working closely together to narrate and illustrate these unique moments in time, Crump and Angell have created an engaging read that is a perfect way to spend an hour or two – and a true gift for readers, amateur scientists, and all frog fans.
Preface
Artist's Note
Midnight: Wallace's Flying Frog (Asia)
1 AM: Horned Marsupial Frog (Central and South America)
2 AM: Mud-Nesting Frog (South America)
3 AM: Wood Frog (North America)
4 AM: Wandolleck's Land Frog (New Guinea)
5 AM: Crawfish Frog (North America)
6 AM: Cane Toad (South America, Introduced Elsewhere)
7 AM: Common Midwife Toad (Europe)
8 AM: Golden Poison Frog (South America)
9 AM: Pacific Horned Frog (South America)
10 AM: Tomato Frog (Madagascar)
11 AM: Bornean Foot-Flagging Frog (Asia)
Noon: African Bullfrog (Africa)
1 PM: Rockhole Frog (Australia)
2 PM: Giant Frog (Australia)
3 PM: Yucatan Shovel-Headed Treefrog (Mexico, Central America)
4 PM: Oriental Fire-Bellied Toad (Asia)
5 PM: Darwin's Frog (South America)
6 PM: Reticulated Humming Frog (South America)
7 PM: Rosenberg's Gladiator Frog (Central and South America)
8 PM: Matang Narrow-Mouthed Frog (Borneo)
9 PM: Tungara Frog (Central and South America, the Caribbean)
10 PM: African Clawed Frog (Africa, Introduced Elsewhere)
11 PM: Common Toad (Europe, Asia, Africa)
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Further Reading
Index
Marty Crump is an adjunct professor of biology at Utah State and Northern Arizona Universities. She has been a herpetologist for more than fifty years, working with tropical amphibians to study parental care, reproduction, territoriality, cannibalism, and tadpole ecology. She is the author or coauthor of fourteen books, including A Year with Nature and Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog, Adder's Fork, and Lizard's Leg, both also published by the University of Chicago Press. Most recently, she is the editor of Lost Frogs & Hot Snakes: Herpetologists' Tales from the Field.
Tony Angell is the author and illustrator of over a dozen books related to natural history, including The House of Owls and In the Company of Crows and Ravens. He is also the illustrator of Bird Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Avian Lives, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
"Crump is a world expert on the private lives of frogs and toads. She has spent decades as a professional Frog Voyeur, discovering astonishing complexity in how frogs overcome daily challenges. This delightful book will surprise the reader with tricks that frogs use to survive and breed and open the reader's eyes to the marvelous world of small hopping creatures."
– Rick Shine, author of Cane Toad Wars
"Frog Day is packed with fact-filled vignettes spanning these spectacular amphibians' global occurrence, sizes, appearances, habitats, behavior, and conservation status. Readers of this wonderful book will learn a lot about frogs, as well as why we should all be concerned for the plight of wild nature on our rapidly changing planet."
– Harry W. Greene, author of Tracks and Shadows: Field Biology as Art
"We truly could not have asked for a more knowledgeable and enchanting guide. As we hop from continent to continent, we not only get a glimpse of the natural history, behavior, and adaptations of frogs, but we also see how these creatures are intertwined with culture and folklore from around the world. As Frog Day comes to an end, we are left with a sense of wonder and a thirst to continue this exploration."
– Sinlan Poo, coeditor of Women in Herpetology: 50 Stories from around the World
"In rainforests around the world, pesky mosquitoes swarm your face while frogs 'fly' through the canopy, call from branches dripping with ferns and orchids, and mimic plump, ripe tomatoes. Elsewhere, crawfish frogs snore, fat cane toads gobble up insects, and African bullfrogs babysit their tadpoles. Readers will delight in this beautifully illustrated and evocative reminder of how special amphibians and their habitats are."
– Susan C. Walls, United States Geological Survey
"This is storytelling at its best. Frog Day is an engaging and visually stunning narrative on frogs-some of the planet's most imperiled creatures. Crump has skillfully woven together tantalizing tales with fascinating facts, resulting in a beautiful celebration of frogs at a time when they need our help the most. I have no doubt that this book will captivate readers of all ages, at the same time inspiring a passion for frogs and their conservation."
– Jodi Rowley, the Australian Museum & UNSW Sydney
