Leap Day the Frog Way

The real purpose of leap day may be to keep the calendar aligned with the seasons, but here at the rescue project, we’d like to believe the day is designed to honor our favorite leapers. To celebrate, we’ve put together some fun facts about frog leaping.

•       Not all frogs can leap, or even hop. The desert rain frog (Breviceps macrops) has legs that are too short to hop. Instead, it walks.
•            Male frogs of the genus Pipa are known to defend their territory by jumping at and then wrestling other males.
•          The New Guinea bush frog (Asterophrys turpicola) takes jump attacks one step further: before it jumps at a strange frog, it inflates itself and shows off its blue tongue.
   ·      Stumpffia tridactyla are normally slow-moving critters, but when they’re startled they can abruptly jump up to 8 inches. That doesn’t sound very far, but these little guys are less than half an inch long!
   ·      The Fuji tree frog (Platymantis vitiensis) may be the leaping stuntman of the frog world. Each time it leaps, it twists in the air—sometimes even 180 degrees—to throw predators off its trail.
   ·      The Larut torrent frog (Amolops larutensis) gets its name from a nifty leaping trick: it can jump into a fast-moving stream and back to its usual perch, the underside of a rock, without being affected by the current.
   ·      Similarly, the parachuting red-eyed leaf frog (Agalychnis saltator) gets its name because it speeds to mating opportunities by jumping from trees with finger-and toe-webbing spread wide.
   ·      The record for longest jump by an American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) recorded in a scientific paper is a little over 4 feet. But scientists who went to the Calaveras County Fair, which Mark Twain’s short story made famous for frog jumping, found that more than half the competitors bested that record—and one jumped more than 7 feet in one leap!
   ·      The Guinness Book of World Records doesn’t include any frogs for their leaping ability. But it does track human performance in frog jumping (jumping while holding one’s toes). There are records listed for the longest frog jump and the fastest frog jumping over 10 and 100 meters.
  
  
  In honor of leap day celebrations being coordinated globally by Amphibian Ark, the Panama Amphibian 
  Rescue and Conservation Project made this video for a frog song written by Alex Culbreth.
  
  

Post by Meghan Bartels, Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project 

The Zoo is getting Crafty!

Here at the zoo we are celebrating National Bird Feeding Month with bird friendly children’s activities. Follow the instructions listed below to build a backyard bird “tweeder” with a recycled soda bottle or steal some of your mom’s favorite ribbon to create a festive bird “tweet”.

Backyard Bird Feeder

Materials

      ·        Clean 1-liter soda bottle

      ·        Craft knife

      ·        2 wooden spoons

      ·        Small eye screw

      ·        Length of twine for hanging

Directions

1.      Start by drawing a 1/2-inch asterisk on the side of a clean 1-liter soda bottle, about 4 inches from the bottom.

2.      Rotate the bottle 90 degrees and draw another asterisk 2 inches from the bottom.

3.      Draw a 1-inch-wide circle opposite each asterisk, as shown.

4.      Use a craft knife to slit the asterisk lines and cut out the circles (a parent's job).

5.      Insert a wooden spoon handle first through each hole and then through the opposite asterisk, as shown.

6.      Remove the bottle cap and twist a small eye screw into the top of it for hanging.

7.      Finally, fill your feeder with birdseed, recap it, and use a length of twine to hang it from a tree.

"Tweet" Treats

Materials

• 1/4-ounce package of unflavored gelatin
• 2 cups of your favorite wild birdseed
• Three 4-inch mini bundt or fluted pans
• Colorful ribbon

Directions

1.      To make a batch, bring 6 tablespoons of water to a boil. Empty one 1/4-ounce package of unflavored gelatin into 2 tablespoons of cold water in a large bowl.

2.      Let the gelatin sit for 1 minute, then add the boiling water and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until the gelatin has dissolved. 

3.      Next, stir 2 cups of your favorite wild birdseed into the gelatin, mixing thoroughly.

4.      Let the mixture set for a few minutes, then stir again. Repeat this process a few times, if necessary, allowing the seed to absorb the liquid.

5.      Spoon the seed mixture into three 4-inch mini bundt or fluted pans

6.      Place the pans in the refrigerator or a cool room and let them set for at least 3 hours.

7.      Remove the wreaths from the molds by inverting the pans and tapping along the bottoms.

8.      Allow the wreaths to air-dry overnight. 

9.      Finally, tie colorful ribbon around your wreaths and hang them outside in a protected spot, such as under an awning or eaves, where the rain won't melt them.

Send photos of your completed project to kwhite@cmzoo.org, for a chance to be highlighted on Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s Facebook page.

*Check out http://familyfun.go.com for more kid crafts.

Zoo LOVE is in the Air!

 

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Filling:

·        1 ½ cup Fresh Strawberries

·        ¼ cup Sugar

·        Pinch of Salt

Cheesecake:

·        2 cups Softened Cream Cheese

·        1 tsp Vanilla Extract

·        1 tsp Almond Extract

·        Juice of ½ a Lemon

·        ¼ cup Powdered Sugar

Crust:

·        1 cup Graham crackers

·        1/8 cup sugar

Directions:

In a small sauce pan, combine strawberries, sugar, and salt over med-low heat.  

Cook strawberries down until all combined and very pliable, then place in the refrigerator. 

Meanwhile, in a mixer, mix cream cheese, vanilla, almond and lemon. 

Slowly add the powdered sugar to the cream cheese mixture until well combined, and refrigerate.

In a food processor, mix graham crackers and sugar, blitz until mixture is a fine powder. 

Once strawberry and cream cheese mixture is chilled, add a ½ inch of strawberries to the bottom of a small/medium ramekin.

Using a spoon, add cream cheese mixture to top of strawberries filling up to the top of the ramekin. 

Dust the top of mixture with graham cracker dust, slightly patting it down to form a crust. 

Garnish with a fresh mint leaf. 

Cheesecake and strawberry mixtures can both be made a day prior and then assembled at time of use.