Calhoun Quoted in AP Article on Mass Die-Off of Wood Frog Tadpoles
Aram Calhoun, a professor of wetland ecology at the University of Maine, was quoted in an Associated Press article about research being done by Bowdoin College biologist Nathaniel Wheelwright, who said he found evidence of a mass die-off of wood frog tadpoles. Wheelwright documented the die-off of about 200,000 tadpoles in a pond in his backyard, igniting new interest among scientists in ranavirus, a disease that can cause swift mass deaths of amphibians, according to the article. The disease causes amphibians, especially larvae, to swell and hemorrhage, the article states. Calhoun said long-term data about ranavirus die-offs are needed to determine if the deaths in Wheelwright’s pond are alarming. “What I don’t think is we should be extrapolating what happened in his pool to all pools in New England and say that’s a trend, because we really don’t know that,” she said. The Sacramento Bee and Brattleboro Reformer carried the AP report.