by Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

NNSL (DEC 06/96) - The North is an unlikely place for a frog expert.

Nonetheless, Yellowknife has its own frog fanatic.

Mike Fournier, a wildlife population technician with the Canadian Wildlife Service, knows just about all there is to know about the amphibians.

"As a frog lover, it's not exactly the best place to be," he says.

Frogs, after all, are about as easy to come by in the North as a cod in Newfoundland these days.

Except in Yellowknife and the Mackenzie Valley areas, there are no frogs found in the NWT. Most southern areas have more than two dozen species, but the NWT has only three.

Fournier says the fact that frogs can live in the North at all is interesting.

The amphibians can't control their body temperature, but they do have a form of antifreeze in their blood that allows them to withstand cold temperature.

They can even freeze to the point of immobility, and then thaw out when the temperature rises a couple of days later.

Fournier brings his family on outings during the summer months to catch frogs. He's pleased to say that his son Christopher is also a frog hobbyist -- passing on the frog legacy if you will.

The Fournier family home contains books on frogs, frog hats, a stuffed frog and a pet toad.

Fournier says he's loved frogs since collecting specimens in the swamps surrounding his parent's cottage near Ottawa when he was a kid. "It's just something I never grew out of," he says.

He has always taken a keen interest in the amphibians, but admits it's hard to get other people to share that interest. "Frogs aren't glamorous, and they are difficult to spot," he says.

Despite this, Fournier loves to find out little details.

"Some tropical frogs are so poisonous they can kill you if you pick them up with an open wound on your hand," he says.

While everything about frogs fascinates him, Fournier focuses his work on Northern species.

He has just finished a report on the declining frog population in Canada, including the North. He is hoping to get an atlas published by spring of 1997 to help locate where frogs live in the North.

While it's a hobby for him, Fournier never jokes about his love for frogs.

"It's just something I do," he says. "It's a species that's often overlooked.