Snorting pig frog holds up road work
Thursday, October 25, 2001
A tiny endangered frog which sounds like a snorting pig is holding up a multi-million pound development in Iowa.

The four-and-a-half inch crawfish frog might not even exist in the wooded ravine near the project site.

Scientists from the Iowa Department of Transportation are to launch a study next spring to see if the frog does exist in the area.

The brown-spotted frog with a reticulated upper lip was last seen there 60 years ago.

But the Iowa Department of Natural Resources requires a report before it can issue a road permit, because by law the frog's habitat must be protected.

"The burden of proof falls on us to prove if the frogs are there," said Marc Solberg, from the Transportation Department.

The study means the bypass probably won't be completed on schedule and around two years late.

Traps are being set to catch the frogs and if they are found highway officials then have to decide how to keep the frogs off the highway or the highway off the frogs.

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