Man attempts to create 'frog army' from 2.8 million tadpoles

A man is attempting to create a “frog army” from 2.8 million tadpoles despite warnings the stunt could have damaging consequences.

The mission is being undertaken by anonymous TikTokker @thinfrog who has amassed 2.5 million followers and over 24 million likes on their content.

It began in February 2022 when the TikTokker came across lots of frogspawn in a pond near their home and transported it to a pond in their own garden.

In a clip that has been viewed 2.5 million times, the user claimed that they had “rescued” the frogspawn from a “polluted” puddle that was drying up.

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This February, as frogs begin to spawn again in the Spring, the account seems to have fired back into action with the user again attempting to create a “frog army” by putting millions of eggs into their garden pond.

The captioned post reads: “We have 2x more tadpoles than last year it's going to be a lot more bigger.”

But, experts warn that such stunts could have “extremely negative consequences” for the environment if too many are relocated.

Tierra Curry, a conservation biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Guardian: “Instead of helping, [these TikTok users] are actually hurting the animals they’re releasing and all the animals in the environment that they’re releasing them into – it’s creating a vector for disease and invasive species.”

Other experts warn that such activity by humans could unintentionally cause a mass extinction event. Previously, a fungus that was introduced by humans handling the animals led to more than 90 species being wiped out.

Chris Nagano, an employee of the endangered species biologist at the US Fish and Wildlife Service for 27 years, described it as “the law of unintended consequences”.

Nagano said: “I have no doubt this person may have thought he was doing a good thing, but he may actually be driving these populations to extinction.”

It seems other TikTokkers also displayed concern at the sheer number of eggs the person was trying to grow into frogs.

One user wrote: “A literal ecological disaster.”

Another said: “Have we learned nothing?!”

Someone else commented: “Someone call the police bruh.”

“Bro is changing the entire ecosystem,” another added.

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