The Making of The Ribbit Exhibit!
Have you heard? The Ribbit Exhibit will open to the public this labor day weekend! The Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center is excited to teach guests all about the native and invasive frogs and toads of Florida and how to tell them apart.
Building a home for live animals requires research and collaboration! We’ve interviewed our Animal Husbandry Specialist, Nicole White, to learn more about the process.
How much did you know about frogs and toads before you started planning this exhibit?
Honestly, I really just had the basic knowledge that you're taught back in grade school. Things like their life cycle stages. My experience has always been working with marine species, but when I was offered the opportunity to work on creating this new exhibit, I jumped on it! Since then I have learned SO much! I have done an immense amount of research to make sure we provide our frogs with all of their proper habitat requirements, water quality and nutrition. I've spoken with many professionals that work specifically with amphibians and they have been a huge help as well.
Did you learn anything surprising about frogs and toads while developing The Ribbit Exhibit?
After working daily with these animals, I think they deserve so much more respect and credit than they are given. Their life cycle is incredible to observe and pretty complex. People are always so amazed with how caterpillars transform into butterflies, which is beautiful, but watch a video of frog metamorphosis from egg to adult and it's truly amazing! When moving past the froglet stage, they reabsorb their tail into their bodies and use it as a source of nutrition! Frogs are also a great indicator species for us. They are very sensitive to environmental pollutants, so if we don't find frogs or toads in areas where they were historically found, it gives us clues that we need to take a deeper look at what's going on.
Do you have a favorite species in The Ribbit Exhibit?
Oh, this is a hard one! I have come to know all of these animals as individuals. We have 16 frogs and toads in total — I got to know each one really well when they were going through their quarantine process. The different species definitely have their own unique quirks and I love how different they all are!
I call the barking tree frogs my little couch potatoes because they are more relaxed and let me pick them up without squirming. The green and cuban tree frogs are my feisty guys/gals. I can always count on them to be super lively and acrobatic when I feed them, there’s never a dull moment. The southern toads have the most adorable faces and look so innocent! They always pose for photos, I think they enjoy their time to shine. Last but certainly not least are our 2 male cane toads, Willy and Wonka. I have only recently acquired these two from the Greenville Zoo so I’m still getting to know them but they are so relaxed! Their grand size makes them stand out and I think they’ll be a crowd favorite. To answer your question… no, I love them all for different reasons!
How did the frogs get their names?
They just kind of come to us after working with them for a while. We named them after different movie characters, green colored foods, and even had a contest for visitors at our Hoppy Hour event to help pick a few names! The barking tree frogs are named appropriately because their call sounds very similar to a barking dog, so we came up with a couple of famous dog names like Clifford and Fido. I named one of our cuban tree frogs E.T. because of his similar color and large toe pads, reminding me of the alien. Cuban tree frogs’ large toe pads actually make it a helpful identifier when you're looking at one and trying to compare it to other species. Being a Harry Potter fan, we had to name two of our southern toads after Neville Longbottom, a well known character, and his pet toad named Trevor! You’ll see those two hopping around. And of course, we had to commemorate one of the most famous green frogs of all time, Kermit! Here's a full list of all of our 16 frogs’ and toads’ names:
Green tree frogs - Kermit, Matcha, Mike Wazowski
Barking tree frogs - Clifford, Fido, Brussel Sprout
Southern toads - Neville, Trevor, Charlie, Bula, Hoppy
Cuban tree frogs - E.T., Carlton, Matthew
Cane toads - Willy and Wonka
What will be the next live animal exhibit at the Discovery Center?
We’ll be slithering into the world of snakes! My heart is always with the animals, so I’m excited to start another dive deep into this project and learn more about the new species we will be housing here at the Discovery Center! When you mention snakes, people usually have two very different reactions, they either love them or hate them. Regardless of how you might feel about them, they are incredibly important players in the ecosystem. All life has a key role, a job if you will, and helps maintain the biodiversity on Earth. I'm excited to bring yet another important species into the center for people to learn about and to hopefully break the stigma surrounding these creatures.