Giant Frogs Can Jump if the Pad Fits

For once, a breed of Goliaths has triumphed--but only if they’re small enough to fit onto an eight-inch launching pad.

After months of controversy, organizers of Calaveras County’s famed Frog Jumping Jubilee voted Wednesday night to allow giant African Goliath frogs to compete in the whimsical contest.

The debate at the meeting of the 39th Agricultural District Assn., which runs the contest as part of the Calaveras County Fair in May, included a report from two local residents who recently visited the frogs’ habitat in Africa.

The association’s decision included one qualifier: The Goliath frogs must jump off the same eight-inch circular pads that their smaller California bullfrog competitors use. Any frog that cannot get all four feet on the pad before the jump will be eliminated.

“As long as they can fit their feet on the pad, they can compete,” said Ruth Kuhl, one of nine members of the association’s board of directors. “I’m not sure (the Goliaths) can, but those are the rules and any frog who obeys the rules should be able to compete.”

In a telephone interview before the meeting, Seattle animal importer Andy J. Koffman said he would not fight the restrictions. His frogs, some of which stretch three feet, have already begun practicing on eight-inch launching pads, he said.

“I’m not happy with these rules, but if that’s the best I can do, then so be it,” Koffman said.

The “frog crisis” began in January, when Koffman announced that he planned to enter 10 of his “superfrogs” in the 62-year-old contest, which was inspired by Mark Twain’s short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”

Koffman’s Goliaths are four to eight times larger than California bullfrogs, which weigh an average of one pound.

Some Calaveras County residents were hopping mad at Koffman and fair organizers threatened to bar the frogs from the contest.

State officials also leaped into the fray, saying they would deny Koffman’s amphibians a permit to enter California. The officials said they feared that the Goliaths, should they escape into the wild, would terrorize the local insect and fish populations.

But Wednesday, the officials said they will no longer block the Goliaths from coming to California.

“It doesn’t look like that species would survive even if they got loose,” said Lanny Clavecilla of the state Department of Fish and Game in Sacramento. He said his office and state Department of Food and Agriculture were planning to issue a joint permit Friday that would allow the frogs into the state.

Koffman claims the Goliaths can jump 30 to 40 feet in one bound and says he is confident his frogs can easily exceed the contest record of 21 feet, 5 3/4 inches set by Rosie the Ribbiter’s three leaps in 1986.

If Koffman is right, he can claim $1,000 for breaking the record, as well as $500 for winning this year’s contest.

But scientists, including UC Berkeley biology professor David Wake, are skeptical. He said the world record for frog jumping is 32 feet, 3 inches for three leaps, set in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1954 by a cousin of the Goliaths, a frog species known as Rana oxyrhynchus.