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A Plague of Frogs--Study Questions to accompany the book.
CHAPTER 3: Creepy Crawly
1. What is the town of Brainerd known for?
2. How far from the Ney farm is Brainerd located? Why would this be significant?
3. For what do the Bocks use their lake?
4. Why might the placement of the Bocks’ water well be important?
5. How does the discovery of the first deformed frog at the Bocks relate to the
beginning of the book?
6. Each time a new location with deformed frogs is discovered, researchers reacted
in the same way. Describe their reaction in three words.
7. Who is David Hoppe?
8. Why did Hoppe refuse to speculate on the cause for the deformities?
9. How many toes are on a frog?
10. What change in the field of biology do the author and Hoppe discuss? Why is this ironic?
11. What was so different and important about the Bock's lake?
12. What were two possible sources of contamination for Bocks’ lake?
13. Why was it important that the Minnesota state legislature approve funding for MPCA?
14. What problems were occurring when the summer ’96 data of frog deformities came in?
15. Why were all the affected frogs found juveniles?
16. What is a necropsy?
17. What types of internal problems were found in the frogs?
18. Why were these frogs most likely dying?
19. What evidence is there of a behavioral abnormality in the frogs?
20. Why could mink frogs be an especially good indicator of water quality?
21. What did Hoppe find in the lake?
22. What name did researchers give the lake? Why did they do this?
23. How far back in literature were reports of deformed frogs found? How did these reports differ from the current situation?
24. Would you continue to swim in this lake? Why or why not?
25. Why is finding control sites important?
26. What could be a possible reason for the large increase in citizen reports?
27. Even though information was found on previously deformed frogs in California, what was missing from those reports?
28. What three possible causes for deformities were being considered by the time of Chapter 2?
29. What definition did Hoppe give his students for "herpetologist"? Why?
Make a sketch of Bocks' lake. On your sketch, label the areas where Hoppe found each species of frogs affected by the deformities. Key each species with the severity of abnormalities suffered.
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