For 20 years, pregnancy tests croaked

Before the plastic stick in the chemist's aisle, there was a frog.

In the 1930s, researchers found that if you injected a female African clawed frog with urine from a pregnant woman, the hormones in it made her lay eggs within about a day. It worked. Hospitals around the world kept tanks of Xenopus laevis in the basement — living, blinking pregnancy tests, used again and again for years.

The method held on until chemical tests took over in the 1960s. By then, clawed frogs had been shipped across continents in enormous numbers, and surplus ones were released or escaped into local waterways. Today Xenopus populations live wild far from Africa — and the trade is widely linked to the spread of the amphibian chytrid fungus, a disease that has devastated frog species worldwide.

Why it matters on a Tuesday afternoon with a tank in your living room: never release an amphibian, or its water, into a pond, stream or drain. Not a frog, not a newt, not a tadpole you rehomed with the best intentions. Dechlorinate and dispose of tank water down an indoor drain, and rehome animals through a keeper group or rescue.

And if your frog goes off food, floats oddly or develops reddened skin, see a vet experienced with exotics — amphibian illness moves fast and quietly. 🐸