PUT aside climate change and habitat destruction for a moment. Frogs are facing a more mundane threat: our insatiable appetite for them.
of the National University of Singapore and his team are calling for greater regulation of the global market for frog meat, in order to avoid species being 鈥渆aten to extinction鈥� (Conservation Biology, ).
According to UN figures, global trade in frog meat has soared in the past 20 years. France and the US are the two largest importers, with France importing between 2500 and 4000 tonnes each year since 1995. Indonesia exports more than 5000 tonnes annually, mostly to Europe. Frogs鈥� legs are also very popular in Asian cuisine.
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Bickford estimates that about 180 million to a billion frogs are harvested each year worldwide. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 based on both sound data and an estimate of consumption for just Indonesia and China,鈥� he says. 鈥淢y 180 million minimum is almost laughably conservative.鈥�