I’m not sure how North Carolina has survived this long with out an official state frog, but we will soon have one as the General Assembly passed a bill yesterday designating an official state frog (pine barrens tree frog) along with an official state art medium (clay), state fossil (megalodon!), salamander (marbled salamander), marsupial (opossum — what else could it be?), and official folk art (whirligigs). The bill is now before Gov. Pat McCrory.
That said, the selection of the pine barrens tree frog is frankly shocking. As Davidson College’s excellent “Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina” website makes clear, the “pine barrens” in the name comes from the New Jersey Pine Barrens in, you know, New Jersey. Pretty though this species may be, it’s still odd that the state would embrace something so obviously associated with New Jersey.
Full disclosure: I lived in New Jersey for two years as a kid.
