A campaign in France to exterminate frogs may sound like the beginning of a civil war, They said it; I didn't. but these are no ordinary frogs.
Hunters working for the government's wildlife agency will be stalking ponds in south-west France this weekend, aimed with flash-lights, rifles, silencers attack helicopters and night-vision sights.
They have been mobilised for the most intensive effort so far to terminate a plague of giant Californian bullfrogs which is threatening to disrupt the ecology of the Gironde, Dordogne and several other départements. Ze American imperialists again.
The aggressive and voracious bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana), introduced illegally 37 years ago, can grow to more than 4lbs in weight and almost 2ft long. Well, in the US, illegal invaders get ranches handed to the them. It consumes other frogs, fish, lizards and even small birds. I tawt I taw a fwog!
Destroying the frogs is not easy, however. The Gironde fisheries protection association attacked a pond full of bullfrogs with electricity a few years ago. The frogs fought back. Fought back? What did they do, bomb the power plant? The hunters battled with them for two hours. They killed just one frog before they gave up.
"Shooting them with rifles is the most effective method we have found," said an environmental campaigner, Luc Gueugneau.
It would probably work on Jihadis, too. |