March 20
World Frog Day
World Frog Day is an annual celebration that falls on March 20, where various excursions, sightings, talks and other events are held around the world to raise awareness of their threats, protect these amphibians and provide them with a safer environment to survive.
The World Frog Day, celebrated since 2009, aims to save various frog species from extinction. Frogs are tailless amphibians that have been around for almost 256 million years. There are approximately 6,000 known frog species, with 4,800 recorded species found worldwide except in Antarctica. However, in the last decade, about 170 frog species have become extinct due to human activities and fungal infections. The decline in frog populations has been significant since the 1950s, with about a third of the world's species critically endangered. The World Frog Day has become the largest day for amphibian conservation, with people and organizations focusing on the global decline of amphibians. Biologists worldwide are actively researching the causes and solutions to these problems. Frogs have a wide range of sizes, from the giant Goliath frog, which can grow up to 30 cm long and weigh 3 kg, to the smallest known frog species, the Paedophryne amauensis, which measures only 7 mm. Frogs have excellent night vision and can see forward, sideways, and partially backward. Many frog species can jump more than 20 times their body length. Poisonous frog species are often brightly colored to warn predators of their toxic skin. Some fascinating frog species include the wood frog, which can survive with 65% of its body frozen, and the moor frog, which turns blue during breeding season. Female frogs sometimes play dead to avoid mating.
