The Digital Frog Blog

A few years ago, we decided to dip our feet into the YouTube pond and post a few videos, both from our educational software and others we’ve collected but haven’t been able to use for one reason or another. So far this has mostly been in the shape of several dissection videos from The Digital Frog 2.5.

We added one additional video that we recorded but were never able to use in a finished product: a time lapse showing the decomposition of a rabbit over eight days, reduced to one minute of video. This has become a surprising breakaway smash success on the Digital Frog YouTube Channel, closing in on 400,000 views and over 1200 comments.

We produced the video for a forest ecology program that was never completed as a way of demonstrating natural decomposition in a manner that words alone could not describe. It can be a bit disturbing for some, but quite dramatically shows how quickly the process happens, the various insects and organisms who help in decomposition, and goes a long way to explaining why you don’t often see the carcasses of dead animals in the woods‚ they don’t last long.

The version above is a new, higher resolution version than the original, allowing to you to see a bit more clearly what happens over the week the video was shot.

While our YouTube channel has been a bit quiet over the past while, we’re looking forward to putting up new videos both from our existing educational software and others that have not been publicly seen before. We’ll provide updates here, or you can also subscribe to the Digital Frog YouTube channel to see when new videos come online.

(If you’d like a downloadable version, we’re currently working on a new version of this video with narration to describe what is happening and the processes at work. That will be available exclusively through our Digital Frogger Club. You can sign up now and be notified when the video is ready for download.)

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As part of the Year of the Frog, the Vancouver Aquarium has produced “Bullfrog Ballet”, a two-minute, high-speed video showing bullfrogs feeding on insects in slow motion, giving them a grace you might not normally associate with large (and seemingly ungainly) bullfrogs.

From the Vancouver Aquarium’s description:

Bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) are native to eastern North America, from Canada as far south as Florida, but they’re invading British Columbia, where the Vancouver Aquarium is located. They were introduced here in the early 1900s by people wanting to farm them for their legs.

As you can see, they’ll eat just about anything that will fit into their mouth. They can easily tip the delicate balance of nature in places where they are not naturally found.

Ironically this widely introduced species is disappearing in Ontario, Canada — part of its natural range.

The video is part of a wider exhibit running at the aquarium, “Frogs Forever?”, to raise awareness of the dangers facing the world’s frog populations and what we can do to help.

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