North Carolina has more than its share of official state symbols, including a fruit (the Scuppernong grape), a bird (the cardinal), a carnivorous plant (Venus flytrap) and a rock (granite – hard, unyielding, you get the picture).
But until now, despite the fact that our state is home to some of the temperate world’s greatest amphibian diversity, we have not had a state amphibian. I can hear you gasp. What is a state without an official amphibian? What, indeed. We have a state dance (the shag), so how did we get this far with no frog or salamander to pin our collective aspirations to?
Well, let it be known that last spring, state representatives set out to remedy that fact. I’ll grant you that picking a state amphibian may not sound like a high priority when you compare it to other issues facing us, such as infant mortality, unemployment, lack of access to health care, the long shadow of the avian flu and a crumbling highway system. But in fact, it’s as simple as introducing a bill and having a bunch of white guys in suits sign it. No lengthy debates, no tricky appropriations, just pick an amphibian and be done with it, end of story.
Apparently, it’s not that easy. It turns out that the state is full of amphibian partisans, each with their own list of favorites. For every say, five bullfrog enthusiasts, there are two or three people out there who are ga-ga about the lesser siren, Fowler’s toad or seepage salamander. It can get ugly.
The amphibian that lawmakers first settled on, Lithobates (formerly Rana) catesbeianus, the American bullfrog, might have seemed a no-brainer, since bullfrogs are emblematic of the Southern summer, with their insistent jug-o’-rum calls carrying on all night from the marshes and ponds and the other dampish spots they favor. But bullfrogs are ubiquitous. They’re not specific to North Carolina, and in fact live pretty much all over the eastern and middle of the continent, north to Nova Scotia and west to the Rocky Mountain front. In other parts of the country where they’ve been introduced, bullfrogs actually have earned a thuggish reputation, eating more than their share of frogs, songbirds, bugs and even bats, and displacing endemic frogs in the process.
Democracy is all about choice, and when it comes to amphibians, the choices are many. And while I love a bullfrog as well as anyone (especially their tadpoles, and best of all when they sprout those dangly little legs), I’d encourage you to take a look at some of the alternatives the North Carolina Herpetological Society has put forward to that mean ol’ Lithobates catesbeianus. For starters, consider the pine barrens tree frog, Brimley’s chorus frog, the marbled salamander, and my own personal fave, the hellbender, which, at two feet plus, is as big as any salamander should get. (One of the dialectical names for it, “snot otter,” is pretty seductive, too.)
Stand for something. Visit the North Carolina Herpetological Society homepage and cast your vote for the amphibian you believe best represents our state.
— Kent Priestley, staff reporter
Instead of some slimy little animal, I would like to nominate a true American amphibian hero of WWII, the DUKW (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DUKW ).
Now THAT’s a nice state amphibian and the governor could use it to tour the swamps of Eastern North Carolina, too.
PLUS, it is an endangered species, now being surplus and all, eh?
back in the 1960s/70s, some guy used to have a DUKW sitting in front of his store on Hendersonville Road, and you could clamber around in it. I did.
DUKW for State Amphibian!
Okay – I’ll say it:
“It ain’t easy being green.”
Yeah, just ask any DUKW (pronounced ‘DUCK’) that served in the Pacific during WWII… machine gun fire, artillery creating spouts of water as you sail in toward the beach on a Japanese-held island… it, indeed, ain’t easy being green.
Salute the DUKW’s valiant service by making it the state amphibian of North Carolina.
Ralph Roberts in the house! URTV wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if it weren’t for Roberts down-home programs. I mean, the guy makes driving around Alexander seem interesting!
That said, I’m a fan of the Hellbender. But do they make good pets? I must know.
T’anks, Steve.
Yes, because what this country needs is just a few more war monuments and occasions to deify war and the machinery of death.
Why don’t we just make a 5.56mm cartridge our national symbol already and remove all doubt….someone could design a new crest with it surrounded by Hooters girls standing on the bodies of some dead Arabs. At least it would remove the ambiguity
Pants: I’m not hearing a lot of positivity on the amphibian front from you. I’m guessing you’re a newt guy … am I wrong?
I thought newts were amphibian (no?) maybe they are just slimey, you know with thier habits of infidelity and high divorce rates…
I am for the hellbender.
While newts are amphibians, they can not carry as many troops as the DUKW.