This is an interesting story that ran on Oct. 19 and is by Thomas M. Maugh II.
The article talks about a Purdue study by biologists who studied an 11 mile stretch of road in Tippecanoe Co., just west of West Lafayette. The report found that of the total number of roadkill found, nearly 95 percent were frogs and other amphibians. (PICTURED AT RIGHT is an image of the northern leopard frog, an endangered species. 74 of these frogs were found dead as roadkill in the study.)
Obviously, this story catches our attention because we certainly do not think of frogs as a group vulnerable to road killings, particularly the staggering figure that the study proposes.
The article quotes biologist David Glista as saying, "We think of deer as being one of the more common animals killed on the road, but they make up a tiny percentage of the total." Their study, which lasted 17 months, found just four dead deer.
I think that this story accomplishes two things; it provides somewhat of a lighter side of news (that's not to say dead animals is a light subject, but in this case it is perhaps more peculiar than earth-shattering), and it also proposes a bigger theme of species endangerment and the many ways that they can be affected by human activity. On the whole, this news story captures the readers attention by keeping it short, using an informative lead and nut graf, and implementing effective statistics.
Find the article here. This article was also found under the business section of ChicagoTribune.com, which was perplexing to me.
2 comments:
This article was interesting. I hadn't really thought of amphibians as road kill before. I guess the point of news stories is to teach you something new, which this did. I definitely agree with you about the business thing. Why this article belonged there, I have no idea.
Evan,
I wonder if the study explored the patterns of habitat destruction in Tippecanoe. Does this tie into a broader piece on community aesthetics? If not covered in the study, is it the journalist's responsibility to further flesh out the piece instead of regurgitating a press release?
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