Gig is up: It's frog-catching time
Kentucky hunting season allows rifles, forks

By Andrea Remke
Enquirer staff writer

ALEXANDRIA - Can you hear that?

It's the sound of one less bullfrog croaking in the night.

Kentucky bullfrog hunting season commenced on Friday, as it does each year on
the third Friday in May.

According to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, frog
hunting - or gigging - involves using a multi-pronged fork affixed to a pole to
spear a bullfrog. A flashlight is pointed at the frog, to temporarily blind it
before it is captured.

To successfully catch the frogs, gigging takes place after dark in shallow,
weedy ponds or even creeks, rivers and small reservoirs.

Chet Hayes, 57, said he has been frog gigging since he was about 12. Hayes, who
lives in eastern Campbell County, said the practice can be done off a boat in a
stream or lake, where frogs feed on crayfish, small birds or other frogs.

It takes a swift hand and spear to catch one, he said.

"They are very fast - they are used to being the predator."

A fishing or hunting license is required for gigging, and a hunting license is
needed in order to shoot the frogs with a rifle, said Vikki Rawe, an aquatic
educator for the state fish and wildlife department, who is based in Alexandria.
The limit for gigging is 15 per day, she said.

Rawe's son Jesse, 16, and his friends often gig in the summer. While it may seem
like a gross practice, she said, many "critters" her son catches, such as frogs,
snakes and turtles, are used for Rawe's school presentations.

They're not bad eating either, she said.

"Everyone says it tastes like chicken, but chicken doesn't compare," she said.

Hayes agreed. "It's more of a flavorful chicken."

As for the manner in which the frog is hunted, he said it's a form of husbandry,
"the same as processing beef, chicken... or fish."

Stephanie Boyles, wildlife biologist for People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (PETA), based in Virginia, disagrees.

"We think it's a hideous practice," she said. "Frogs don't do any harm. It's
cruel and needless... it's got to be painful for (the frog)."

E-mail

IF YOU GIG
Statewide bullfrog season in Kentucky opened Friday and closes Oct. 31.

Bullfrogs are the only frogs in Kentucky large enough to provide ample leg meat
to eat.

Taking frogs by hand or gig requires a fishing or hunting license.

The noon-to-noon daily creel limit for bullfrogs is 15.

For information, consult the 2005 Kentucky Sport Fishing and Boating Guide or
visit the Web at fw.ky.gov.

- Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...99/1059/news01

There are still frogs in Kentucky?

Compared with even a few decades ago, they seem to be pretty much
eradicated altogether. I don't mean this as a criticism of
frog-gigging, but something sure seems to have all but eliminated
frogs.

I can remember fishing and camping as a kid, and hearing the frogs
roar. The last time I camped along a creek in central KY, the the
complete absence of frog noise was startling. I remember that it was
Memorial Day weekend, and we speculated that perhaps it was still too
early in the year for the appearance of frogs. But their COMPLETE
absence was puzzling.

In article .com,
"CinciGreg" wrote:

There are still frogs in Kentucky?

Compared with even a few decades ago, they seem to be pretty much
eradicated altogether. I don't mean this as a criticism of
frog-gigging, but something sure seems to have all but eliminated
frogs.

I can remember fishing and camping as a kid, and hearing the frogs
roar. The last time I camped along a creek in central KY, the the
complete absence of frog noise was startling. I remember that it was
Memorial Day weekend, and we speculated that perhaps it was still too
early in the year for the appearance of frogs. But their COMPLETE
absence was puzzling.

The sudden, and dramatic, loss of many amphibians is fairly old news
(dates back at least 10 years).


From: http://www.nature.com/nature/links/010405/010405-1.html
"Amphibian populations have suffered widespread declines and extinctions
in recent decades. Although climatic fluctuations, increased UV-B
radiation, and increased prevalence of disease have all been implicated
at particular localities, the importance of global environmental change
remains unclear. New data links global climate change with disease
outbreaks in populations of the western toad, Bufo boreas , a species
that has experienced severe declines in recent years."

From: http://www.amphibiaweb.org/declines/declines.html
"Globally , over 200 amphibian species have experienced recent
population declines, with reports of 32 species extinctions (Blaustein
and Wake 1990, Alford and Richards 1999, Houlahan et al. 2000)."

If you look at the map on the amphibiaweb.org site, you will notice that
the Americas are particularly hard hit. I won't speculate why as, as far
as I know, nobody has yet proven a connection between human activity and
the loss of amphibians. Considering the history of same, however, one
might suspect there is a link.

Rick

Rick wrote:

If you look at the map on the amphibiaweb.org site, you will notice that
the Americas are particularly hard hit. I won't speculate why as, as far
as I know, nobody has yet proven a connection between human activity and
the loss of amphibians. Considering the history of same, however, one
might suspect there is a link.

Well, yeah, if you're a paranoid leftist hippy freak who's too stupid
to understand that that amphibians have been around a LONG time and
that any species fluctuation should be considered normal and expected
rather than a clarion call off doom!

wrote:

Rick wrote:

If you look at the map on the amphibiaweb.org site, you will notice that
the Americas are particularly hard hit. I won't speculate why as, as far
as I know, nobody has yet proven a connection between human activity and
the loss of amphibians. Considering the history of same, however, one
might suspect there is a link.

Well, yeah, if you're a paranoid leftist hippy freak who's too stupid
to understand that that amphibians have been around a LONG time and
that any species fluctuation should be considered normal and expected
rather than a clarion call off doom!

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...pulation+crash
Appear to be a lot of stupid paranoid leftist hippy freaks out there.
Amazing how many of them work in the biological science and ecology
fields. Most of the time, when they use the words "population crash"
they're not talking about normal species fluctuation.

Passenger pigeons were around for a long time, too, now they're gone.

Steve
--
Steve Cramer
Athens, GA

In article ,
Steve Cramer wrote:

fields. Most of the time, when they use the words "population crash"

Another consideration is that when a species which as existed for 10
million + years, and you observe species declines in those populations
which date back to the last 30 years, you might begin to consider why
they are suddenly so unsuccessful.

Humans eradicated many species through simple hunting (dodo, for
example, certain species of deer) and have driven many others to the
brink of extinction by this same method. Only an idiot would deny that
we also have effects on some species simply by being oblivious to their
need for habitat.

Rick