Decision Saves Frog-Jumping Competition From Croaking

In a policy flip-flop, state Fish and Game wardens have found a way around a state law that forbids returning bullfrogs to the wild. Organizers of the annual frog fest feared the law could have led to the death of hundreds of frogs that compete in the whimsical contest inspired by Mark Twain and perhaps terminate the annual event, as well.

"I'm relieved, and so are the frogs," said Warren L. "Buck" King, unofficial mayor of Frogtown and manager of the Calaveras County Fair and Frog Jumping Jubilee. "I tried to blank out of my mind" the possibility of euthanizing frogs. "What a dishonor to the frogs."

The problem started because contestants aren't what they used to be. Instead of the native red-legged frog celebrated in Twain's short story, eastern bullfrogs now fill the ponds in these parts and thus fill out the ranks of the athletic amphibians.

It's not against the law to catch bullfrogs. But putting bullfrogs back into the water is illegal because they are a nonnative species, said Ed Pert, acting chief of the state Department of Fish and Game's fisheries branch. Anyone who releases a nonnative species into the wild faces a $5,000 fine and up to a year behind bars.

The law has not been enforced in the past. This year, however, contest organizers feared a crackdown by Fish and Game officials.

If the 2,000 amphibian athletes could not go back to the wild, many would likely die in captivity or be killed, they said.

King got hopping mad when he was informed of the law. So did other town leaders who have developed a certain fondness for frogs.

The frog-jumping jubilee attracts 40,000 cash-carrying, motel-renting, trinket-buying tourists. The third weekend in May will be the contest's 74th year in Angels Camp, a Gold Rush town in the foothills of the Sierra due east of San Francisco.

So King and other leaders puffed up their chests and raised a ruckus. What about catch-and-release bass tournaments? King asked.

In those events, fishermen pull bass out of the water to weigh and measure them, then put them back. That's not much different, he said, from the activities of frog jockeys, those lunging, bellowing coaches who try to motivate their frogs to hop.

Winning frogs need fresh legs, he said. Usually they get caught only a day or two before the contest and afterward are carefully put back into their original pond, reservoir or slough.