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Inflatable Frog Censored After Comparisons To China's Ex-Leader

BEIJING— -- China's newest celebrity is a large inflatable toad floating in the middle of a Beijing pond, but mentions of the giant frog have disappeared from some of China's news and social media sites after some netizens pointed out similarities to Jiang Zemin, China's retired leader.

The 72-foot-tall inflatable golden toad has been the center of attention at Beijing's Yuyuantan Park this summer. Children clustered around the lake, waiting to take photos with it. A toad is a good luck sign in China, with tales of them being able to spit out gold coins. "Wealth-beckoning toad" statues have long been popular in Chinese homes and businesses.

But reports of the yellow toad on China's official Xinhua News Agency and Sina, a popular Internet portal, have disappeared.

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The reports disappeared after Chinese internet users compared the toad to Jiang, former Chinese president and ex-head of the ruling Communist Party. One netizen even photoshopped the toad wearing a large pair of square, dark-rimmed eyeglasses, something the former president is often seen wearing.

This is not the first time references to toads were made about the former party leader. During Jiang's 13-year-long rule in China from 1989 to 2002, Chinese people have sometimes referred to him privately as "hama jing," a toad that has assumed the form of a human.

No official reasons were given for the disappearances. A Xinhua official who works in the editing office and declined to identify himself told ABC News that the Xinhua agency handles hundreds of articles a day, and he knows nothing about why the reports disappeared. Another administrative official, who also declined to identify herself, declined to answer questions regarding the reports on the toad altogether. Xinhua's website simply said, "Sorry, this news has been deleted."

Other sites have not taken down posts making the comparison, including Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

It seems that the over-sized amphibian has a serious message. At the entrance of the park, an information board explains that the inflatable frog is called "fuxing chan," or "revival-bringing toad," echoing Chinese president Xi Jinping's "Chinese dream" of "national revival."

Others, however, have mocked the frog. Poet Qingshan from Tianjin wrote a poem that described the inflatable toad as "empty," "useless," and "dependent on a gust of gas."

Mega-sized inflatable animals became a nationwide fad in China after a giant rubber duck attracted huge crowds when exhibited in Hong Kong last year. Created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, the duck inspired imitations in several Chinese cities. Wuhan, Shenzhen, Foshan, Tianjin, and Dongguan have all "quacked up" their own versions of the duck.

Hofman's yellow duck has also been subjected to online censorship in China. Last year, a photoshopped version of the famous Tiananmen Square "tank man" - the protester who famously confronted a tank -- appeared online, with the man confronting a row of yellow ducks rather than Chinese Army tanks. Subsequently, the term "Big Yellow Duck" was blocked during last year's anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Partula Snail

Common Name: Partula snails Scientific Name: Partula nodosa IUCN Red List Status:? Extinct in the wild

Least Concern Extinct

What is the Partula snail?

Also known as the Polynesian tree snail or niho tree snail, the Partula snail (Partula nodosa) is actually one of several snail species of the genus—all of which are in danger of extinction. This particular species was once a common sight in Tahiti, but now the International Union for Conservation of Nature considers it extinct in the wild as the snail is primarily found in captivity (a few have been reintroduced into the wild, however, and further efforts to reintroduce the snail to its native range are underway).

This tiny snail is not much bigger than a pencil eraser. Its body—most of it a muscular foot—is bumpy and brown, and its antenna-like eyes are almost translucent. A gland in the snail's foot secretes a mucus that creates slime trails, which help the snail glide across and stick to surfaces. The mucus also lubricates the snail and contains a special protein that absorbs moisture. Beige- and cream-colored stripes cover the snail's spiraled shell, which protects the snail from predators and prevents it from drying out.

Habitat, diet, and reproduction

The valleys and moist forests of Tahiti in the South Pacific are ideal habitats for the Partula snail. This land snail often sticks under the stems and undersides of leaves. Being a detritivore, the snail gets its nutrients primarily from eating rotted vegetation. It spends most of its time grazing on decayed plants and microscopic plants that it finds on larger flora. Before it became extinct in the wild, the snail was a valuable asset to its ecosystem due to its ability to recycle nutrients from plant debris and support plant respiration.

When it rains, the Partula snail comes out at night to eat and mate. This snail is a hermaphrodite with both female and male sexual organs. If it cannot find a partner, the snail can self-fertilize to reproduce. This species gives birth to live young, which are a mere .04 to .08 inches when they're born—about the size of a ballpoint pen tip. Every month to six weeks, the snail births a single offspring, which will reach sexual maturity in three to six months.

Threats to survival

Partula snails went extinct in the wild because of another snail species—or rather, two. In 1967, the French Polynesian government allowed the giant African land snail to be imported and used as a human food source on islands of the South Pacific, including Tahiti. Some of the snails escaped, howeverm, bred rapidly, and began eating away at crops on local farmland.

In an effort to control this invasive snail's growing population, another species was introduced to the island a decade later: the rosy wolfsnail (Euglandina rosea), also known as the cannibal snail. Living up to its nickname, this carnivorous snail preyed extensively on the Partula snail—which, being smaller and slower than the giant African land snail, was an easier meal to catch—nearly driving it to extinction. By the 1980s, researchers were unable to find any live Partula snails in its native valley habitats.

Conservation

The Partula snail wasn't the only species threatened by the rosy wolfsnail—some 51 other Partula species went extinct as a result of predation. In an effort to save the remaining Partula snails, an international conservation initiative began in 1986, and Partula nodosa joined breeding programs in North America and Europe.

Today, almost all Partula nodosa live exclusively in captivity. After the snail went extinct in the wild, the Detroit Zoo was the only known location in the world where the snail resided. Approximately 6,000 decedents of the Detroit snails now live in zoos across North America—but several of them, like the St. Louis Zoo, are also breeding and introducing the snail back to its native Tahitian habitats. Some live on a predator-proof reserve as the main challenge remains in finding ways for Partula nodosa and the rosy wolfsnail to coexist.

Giant African Land Snail Appears In Florida, Prompts Quarantine, Meningitis Concerns

The Giant African Land Snail can be invasive, wily, potentially infectious, can grow as big as a ... [+] tennis shoe. (Photo: KERRY SHERIDAN/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Florida, you've got snail. A Giant African Land Snail spotted in the New Port Richey area of Pasco County, Florida. As a result, the Florida Department of Agriculture is telling everyone to get the "shell" outta there and establishing a quarantine area that stretches nearly six miles from the northwest corner of U.S. Highway 19. That's for three reasons. One is that Giant African Land Snails can destroy a wide variety of plants. Two is that they can eat into buildings such as stucco surfaces. The third is the dangerous parasite that such snails may be carrying: the rat lungworm.

The following CBS 10 Tampa Bay news segment showed the quarantine area:

You can imagine that anything with the words "rat" and "worm" in its name has a good chance of not being good. That's why not too many celebrities have named their kids "Rat Lungworm." Otherwise known as the nematode Angiostrongylus cantonensis, the rat lungworm is typically found in rodents. The feces of infected rodents can contain Angiostrongylus larvae, yet another reason not to play with or eat rat feces. Snails and slugs don't know better, though, and can, in turn, get infected when eating such feces and larvae. Such larvae grow but don't fully become adults while in snails and slugs. No, it's a rat-eats-snails-and-slugs world that completes the life cycle of the rat lungworm. Once the more mature larva makes it back into a rodent, it can then become an adult worm. Thus, completes the rat lungworm circle of life.

You can break into this circle by either consciously eating an infected snail or slug or accidentally eating one hiding out in raw produce such as lettuce. That's why you may want clarification if your waiter asks you whether you want a slug of dressing on your salad. Also, make sure that any snails that you eat are well-cooked so that any parasites are escar-gone:

And if someone challenges you to eat a live slug during a Truth or Dare game, choose "truth" instead. What's the big deal if you admit that you are in love with your best friend? It's better than getting meningitis.

An infection with this parasite doesn't always cause symptoms. But the biggest concern is a rare type of meningitis called eosinophilic meningitis. Meningitis is a potentially life-threatening inflammation of the membranes that wrap around the brain like Saran Wrap. When you have eosinophilic meningitis, you may have a headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck, or tingling of your skin.

Now, you may be wondering how large a Giant African Land Snail can be. After all, the word "giant" can be an exaggeration, especially when used on a dating web site or when texting with a potential date. Well, in this case "giant" means up to eight inches long and five inches in diameter. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) calls these snails "one of the most damaging snails in the world." Besides potentially carrying the rat lungworm, the snail can treat a wide range of plants as if they were hot dogs in a Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. They will eat through many different agriculturally, economically, medically, and yummy-ly important plants, ranging from cocoa to papaya to peanut to rubber plants.

These snails, otherwise known as Lissachatina fulica, were first found in eastern Tanzania and eastern Kenya on the continent of Africa. These snails have subsequently established themselves throughout South Asia, Southeast Asia, southern China, the Indo-Pacific Basin island groups, many Caribbean Islands, and much of South America. It reached the U.S. In 1966, when someone brought the snail to downtown Miami, Florida. The snail quickly reproduced because that's what snails do and began to wreak agricultural havoc.

Since then Florida has waged a human vs. Snail shell game. After spending around one million dollars at the time to get rid of the snails and their eggs, the state declared the snail eradicated in 1975. The snail might have been escar-gone back then, but in 2011, someone brought the snail back to Miami, Florida. This second round of eradication attempts cost the state (meaning tax payers) over $23 million. In September 2021, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) declared the Giant African Land Snail in Florida eradicated again.

Now, less than year later, the snail is back again, this time spotted by a master gardener. And finding the Giant African Land Snail is not like finding a bunny or a puppy or a buppy, regardless of how adorable they may appear to be:

Obviously, the return of the Giant African Land Snail is not good news. Florida certainly has its share of public health problems right now ranging from an upswing in Covid-19 cases to a meningococcal disease outbreak to a bunch of monkeypox cases to a Listeria outbreak. In the meantime, if you do see a Giant African Land Snail, call the authorities as soon as possible. And don't touch or consume the snail. Heed the warnings above about the nematode Angiostrongylus cantonensis. You don't want anyone to say, "I nematode you so."

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