Experts have warned that the viral ‘frog army’ on TikTok and other similar trends could have dangerous consequences for the environment if real, potentially driving certain populations closer to extinction.
In February 2022, TikTok user thinfrog started documenting the process of creating a so-called ‘frog army,’ collecting frogspawn from puddles that appeared to be drying up.
In June, thinfrog claimed that the frog army had finally hatched, explaining: “95 days ago I rescued 1.4 million frog eggs and put them in my pond for a frog army and now they [are] leaving the pond. And now a million little frogs [are] hopping around the garden. I don’t think I can walk on the grass anymore. This is the biggest frog army ever but I kind of regret this now no one can go in the garden.”
Videos of swarms of frogs garnered millions of views, however, some users have argued that thinfrog is actually faking the frog army with footage taken from YouTube. Regardless, some are worried that the virality of this particular creator could prompt others to copy the idea.
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Experts are warning of the dangerous impact of trends like the ‘frog army,’ predicting negative consequences for the environment if they continue.
Speaking to the Guardian, Tierra Curry, a conservation biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said: “It makes me cringe. Instead of helping, [These TikTok users] are actually hurting the animals they’re releasing and all the animals in the environment that they’re releasing them into – it’s creating a vector for disease and invasive species.”
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Chris Nagano, who worked as an endangered species biologist at the US Fish and Wildlife Service for 27 years, went on to say: “It’s the law of unintended consequences. I have no doubt this person may have thought he was doing a good thing, but he may actually be driving these populations to extinction.”
Marine biologist and researcher for BBC Wildlife Dawood Qureshi also told Metro in June: “Breeding that many frogs is definitely not good for the environment.
“It can cause an influx in frogs that wouldn’t normally survive in this environment, and that can have adverse effects such as too many predators of various insect species being released without many natural limits, which then decreases numbers of insects and can in turn have a negative impact on important processes such as pollination — a process that ensures food plants are growing and thriving.”
Thinfrog has garnered over 20 million collective likes for his videos about the frog army, as well as 2 million followers, but many remain convinced that it’s all fake.
