RESEARCH: Frogs in the Frost

Changes in glacial melting are affecting frog populations in the Peruvian Andes, in a study by Berkeley student Emma Steigerwald.

Legends associating frogs with rainfall emerged for obvious reasons, but they also have more complex cultural roots. Tradition dating back to Inca culture (and possibly back to pre-Inca times) named not only the bright stars of the heavens but also the “dark constellations” — the negative space around the stars. Hanp’atu, “The Toad,” was a dark constellation that rose from the horizon synchronously with the first seasonal rains.