2026 Berkeley Frog Fest

 

What

Berkeley Frog Fest is a free family-friendly, community-oriented art and science festival held at UC Berkeley by frog nerds and their friends

 

When and where

Sat. Aug. 29, 2026 1-5pm

Genetics & Plant Biology Building south lawn, UC Berkeley Campus

 
 
 

Activities

  • Learn about Bay Area frogs and salamanders

  • View entries for the art competition

  • Contribute to a collective art piece

  • Frog-themed photobooth

  • Frog origami

  • Screen print your own shirt

  • Children’s games

  • Live poison frogs

  • Tours of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

  • Amphibioscope: learn about your amphibiological sign and read your horoscope

  • Meet members of the AmphibiaWeb steering committee

  • SlimeMates! Amphibian-themed speed dating

  • More TBA…

Full schedule will be posted closer to event

 

Want to donate a prize or volunteer your time? Have ideas for activities? Please contact Becca Tarvin at rdtarvin@berkeley.edu

 
 

Art competition details

Frog fest will be facilitating an amphibian-inspired art competition. Any creative format is welcome! Think frog-themed theater performance! Electronic music sampling frog calls! Digital comic strips, educational posters, poetry, short stories, a sketch of a strange frog dreamscape, frog-themed mugs, mosaics, jewelry, etc.

In order to enter the competition and be considered for prizes:

  1. Entries must be physically delivered to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology or sent via email to Becca Tarvin (rdtarvin@berkeley.edu) by 11:59pm on August 27, or brought directly to Berkeley Frog Fest between 12:30 pm and 1:15 pm on August 29.

  2. Along with your creative work, please include

    a 1-4 sentence explanation of your artwork’s relevance to frogs and/or amphibians

    the artist’s name(s), age(s), and phone number(s)

  3. Please advise Becca Tarvin in advance if displaying your art will require additional support, tech or otherwise.

 

Art prizes

Adult and kid (<13 yo) entries will be judged separately.

Prize categories:

  • Weirdest

  • Most educational

  • Most frog

Prizes:

  • Berkeley Frog Fest merch

  • Gift cards to local shops and restaurants

  • Frog and Toad books

  • More TBA…

 

Where can you find more information about frogs?

OMG I’m so glad you asked! Here’s a quick 101 on frogs and their relatives, the amphibians.

  • Amphibians are ectotherms with moist, permeable skin.

  • Adults are independent of water, but most larvae are not.

  • Linnaeus defined class Amphibia (“dual life”) in 1758 as all vertebrates except mammals, birds, and bony fish

  • Eventually amphibians and reptiles were separated, but “herpetology” (the study of creeping things) persists. “Herpes” has the same root - “a creeping cutaneous eruption”

  • There are three orders of amphibians: salamanders, frogs, and caecilians

Salamanders

  • Four limbs (sometimes reduced)

  • Well-developed tails

  • Costal grooves (except Salamandridae) 

  • 824 species in 2025; 521 species in 2004 (~14 new species/year)

  • Primarily distributed in the northern continents with secondary invasion of the Neotropics

  • Centers of diversity in eastern U.S. and Neotropics (no salamanders in Australia or most of Africa)

Frogs

  • Four robust limbs on a compact body

  • Greatly elongated hind limbs and feet

  • No tail in adults

  • Caudal vertebrae fused into a rod (urostyle) 

  • 7842 species in 2025; 4904 species in 2004 (~140 new species/year)

  • Worldwide distribution

  • Center of diversity in the tropics

Caecilians

  • Limbless (not even girdles!)

  • Elongate, annulated bodies

  • Generally fossorial (burrowing)

  • Reduced eyes that are covered with skin and sometimes bone

  • Crazy fused skulls

  • 231 species in 2025; 165 species in 2004 (~3 new species/year)

  • Circum-tropical distribution

 

Expert-curated websites

These have general information, images, range maps, and calls for many species. Better than wikipedia!

2026 Berkeley Frog Fest organizing committee

Rebecca Tarvin

Anne Chambers

Maryellen McGoldrick

Other useful books and sites