State Jumps Into Calaveras’ Fray on Goliath Frogs

State fish and game wardens Wednesday hopped into the fight over a Seattle man’s plan to enter eight-pound Goliath frogs in Calaveras County’s whimsical frog-jumping contest, saying the African amphibians are not welcome in California.

The policy flip-flop--contest organizers said game wardens originally said the frogs could legally be brought into the state for display--came after some wardens expressed fears that the giant, sharp-toothed frogs might run amok in the wild.

“There are some real concerns about the frogs getting loose and negatively impacting the environment,” said spokesman Lanny Clavecilla of the California Department of Fish and Game in Sacramento. “Such exotic, or non-native, frogs are prohibited and undesirable.”

Well, not entirely prohibited and undesirable. Clavecilla said the decision to ban the huge frogs from being brought into the state for the Calaveras competition--made famous in a Mark Twain short story--does not mean researchers and zoos will have to surrender their own Goliaths.

“It is OK (to import them) for scientific research or agricultural purposes”--that is, frog ranching to satisfy frog’s leg lovers--”but frog-jumping contests are another matter,” he said.

The concern about the Goliaths is that should they escape from the contest, they will terrorize local populations of small fish and insects, which make up their diet.

Such fears about the Goliaths are unwarranted, said Andy J. Koffman, the exotic animal exporter who sparked the controversy. The frogs are difficult to keep alive beyond the warm, humid climate of their native habitat and would not survive long in the semi-arid central Sierra Nevada region, he said Wednesday from his Seattle home.

“I’m not saying Mr. Koffman is wrong,” said fish and game biologist Steven Taylor. “But I’m not willing to concede he is correct, either. We can only permit importation (of the frogs) if it can clearly be demonstrated the action will have no harmful effect. The burden of proof is on the importer, and he hasn’t done that yet.”

Koffman’s pledge to enter his Goliaths in the frog-jumping contest created a stir because it was assumed that they would easily defeat the much smaller California bullfrogs that normally compete.

Diane Baumann of the 39th District Agricultural Assn.--which conducts the frog-jumping contest as part of the mid-May Calaveras County Fair--said the fair’s board of directors is still scheduled to meet in executive session Friday to decide whether to rewrite the rules to accommodate--or eliminate--the Goliaths.

Koffman is unruffled.

“As long as I am not creating a real menace, it always works out in the end,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll jump my frogs at Calaveras.”

He’s also fairly confident that the contest won’t be their first experience in California. Koffman and his amphibians have been asked to appear this week on “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson”--in Burbank.