Originally Posted by
KP
First thing here is that at no point did I or anyone say that frogs and toads "have the same emotions as what people do" as you put it. No where did anyone state as you also put it that they "share compassion". You managed to take all of what I and then apr0705 said and come up with your own twisted misinterpretation of it to mean something completely other than what was stated. Perhaps you should try reading those posts again. You seem to insist upon disagreeing with almost everything I post which is begining to get old and looks a little trollish.
Now, with regard to how these or any animals behave in captivity as opposed to in the wild, it's a fact that they don't behave the same in both circumstances.
Of course, if you put too many of any living thing into a confined space they'll exhibit a wide range of aberrant behaviors such as you describe and more.
Many animals, if bred in or taken into captivity when newly brought into the world will depart from the norm of their specie's observed behavior with daily human interaction, i.e. a degree of domestication.
As for the Anaxyrus family of Toads and the Gray/Cope's Gray tree frogs native to the region in which I am, I have a unique place from which to observe their behavior as they live on and around the house, the trees and shrubs on the grounds, and from there out to the vast acreages of forests and fields surrounding it. My pool cover measures 20x40 feet and is a central spawning pond for both Tree Frogs and Toads as well as other species of amphibians which I've noted in other threads, all of which come from as far away as a quarter mile from 3 cardinal points to spawn in it. This gives me the absolutely perfect, immediately up-close observation post from which to gather data every year.
In addition to my constant observation of both the Tree Frogs and the Toads outside the house, I have four Grays, each with their own personality who respond to me each as individuals in individual ways, including but not limited to, with their color changes. They will all climb onto my hand without prodding, never trying to flee. One of them whenever taken from the tank climbs onto my hand, then crawls by whatever route he can to the top of my head where he has sat for as long as 4 hours as I go about my business around the house, watch a movie, get online, make dinner, eat, etc. and he will only come down when I remove him when I have to return him to his tank. The other three exhibit the same comfort with human contact. None of them exhibit any defensive responses toward me at any time. Once in a while they'll defecate on me but that's not a defensive threat response, in fact they have to be completely comfortable to relax and do that when being handled by a huge creature they would see only as a potential predator or a general threat if they were not domesticated. They all will sleep in my hand or on my shoulder, on my arm, torso, leg, whatever, and turn their most relaxed gray shade the entire time they're being handled.
They also love to play, climbing on my hands and arms and jumping from one part of me to another, all while being completely at ease and enthusiastic, never displaying their threat colors of the darker shades of their spectrum. Then after burning off some energy, they'll fall asleep on me. But one can only know these kind of intimate aspects of their potential, latent nature by being close to them on the level I have been and am currently and by putting the time in to domesticate them from their first day as a froglet.
Maybe you shouldn't keep these animals as captives if you don't feel you're able to connect with them.
By keeping them in small boxes and telling yourself you're doing something akin to scientific observation, you fail to understand that you won't see them as they would be in the wild. Barring having an ideal circumstance as I do, only by immersing yourself into the wild where they live and becoming a part of the immediate environment they're at home within will you ever gain any real understanding and appreciation of their nature and complexity. This is true for observation of any animal. Even if you should take that step, your very presence will alter their behavior to the degree that it may take a generation or two before you're taken for granted by the community you're surrounded by and no longer having much effect on their behavior just by the fact of your being there, but that's not a committment most can make.
I've had the advantage of having both Anaxyrus Toads and both Hyla Tree Frogs draw close to me in large numbers by the fact of my pool cover pond of snowmelt and rain in the spring, coupled with my immediate proximity to their purely wild habitat, so I'm able to observe them both in their wild, individual (Toads) and communal (Tree Frogs) context directly outside of my house and in the case of the Tree Frogs, a domesticated condition within my house as well.
Finally, when I say "These little critters do have feelings and they do sense human intent and love." , this doesn't mean they have human emotions as you misunderstand it to mean.
Gray Tree Frogs, when domesticated, change color in response to a variety of conditions and not merely in response to the colors of their surroundings as some observers like to assert. They change colors according to their mood as readilly as they do to camouflage themselves as those in the wild do.
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Re: American Toad weird symptoms. New owner, need help
