Save the frog!

Author: Zsóka Vásárhelyi

Recommended age: 6-99

Number of players: 10-30

Space needed for the game: a minimum of 5x5 meters

Difficulty level: 1

Playing time: 5-10 minutes

Preparation time: -

Accessories: -

Short description: Frogs need to get from the woods to the lake, but for this they have to cross a road with heavy traffic.

Preparations: -

Course of the game: Split the participants into two groups: frogs and cars. Frogs need to get from the woods to the lake, but for this, they have to cross a road with heavy traffic. Assign a central zone of the room to be the road (a straight line with two “lanes”), and two corners to be the woods and the lake. Cars should stand at random places on the road, in the right course, and frogs should stand in the woods. Cars should walk slowly along the road and when they reach the wall or the end of the road, they should start coming back along the other line. At the same time, frogs should start for the lake, in a very slow pace, or squatting. Whenever a frog and a car touches each other, the frog dies and leaves the game. The game is most interesting if no one tries cheating. That is, cars do not slow down and frogs do not get fast when close to each other. Unfortunately this is how it is in nature, too. Naturally, cars need to be careful not to truly hurt frogs.

In the first round let there be only one car and everybody else frogs. In the following rounds you can increase the number of cars and see what happens. Finally, you can try using people for saving the frogs by stopping cars at the right moments for 1 minute.

Biological background: As humans are using ever larger areas of natural environments, a growing number of species and populations need to face habitat fragmentation. A dramatic example for this is when frogs gather to mate. Many frog species live their adult life on fields, or in woods, but for mating return to some water body. Tadpoles, that is, frog larvae live in the water until reaching adulthood. Therefore, for reproduction, water is essential for frogs, but sometimes they need to travel long distances to get there. Sometimes they even have to cross one or more roads, too. There are more than 1800 vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered frog species, according to IUCN. Still, every year there are a vast number of animals hit by car, on their way to reproducing. In Hungary, we have a number of communities helping frogs, and many civil activists are helping, too. During these campaigns they place deflectors for frogs, and at the mass crossing points they help frogs cross the road by various methods. Further information on Hungarian campaigns (no English site versions, unfortunately):

Varangy Akciócsoport Egyesület
Magyar Madártani és Természetvédelmi Egyesület
Békamentők

References: own idea