Having a swimming pool is a super fun way to stay cool during the summer. For the small animals living in your backyard, however, it can be a death trap. Wildlife biologist Rich Mason is out to change that with his simple, yet ingenious invention – the FrogLog.

“In June of 2004, good friends who had recently built an in-ground swimming pool on their wooded lot near Baltimore, Maryland, called to let me know frogs were dying in their pool,” Mason wrote on his official website. Deeply troubled by what he was hearing, Mason decided to construct a life-raft of sorts that animals could use to climb out of the pool if they became trapped.

The FrogLog consists of an inflatable platform with an attached mesh skirt, a weighted pouch that secures the device to the pool’s edge, and mesh ramp connecting the two ends. Mason fashioned the prototypes of the FrogLog completely by hand using fabric and foam.

After Mason’s thoughtful invention made headlines on The Dodo, it managed to attract over 68 thousand likes, and a wave of praise. “What a special human you are [for] caring about [these] seemingly insignificant lives…” one user commented. Every creature deserves a chance to survive, and the FrogLog is now one more way to make sure that happens.

More info: FrogLog

Warm summer weather means swimming pool season – as well as frog season!

Image credits: Amazon

But far too often, these and other small creatures become trapped in the pool water and drown

Image credits: Jan Ballard Moher

In 2004, wildlife biologist Rich Mason had a friend who found 53 dead frogs in her pool

Image credits: Levi DeWitt

Saddened by this, he started working on a device that could help these poor critters climb to safety

Image credits: Rich Mason

The FrogLog was born – an foam raft with a mesh ramp that hangs from a weighted pouch

Image credits: FrogLog

His first trials of the product were highly successful, saving more than 50 frogs

Image credits: FrogLog

He adjusted it by swapping the foam for an inflatable platform, and began selling the device

Image credits: Rich Mason

The FrogLog has since received endless praise

Image credits: FrogLog

“What a special human you are… caring about [these] seemingly insignificant lives…”

Image credits: FrogLog

Snakes, mice, and even birds have all been saved by FrogLogs across North America

Image credits: FrogLog

Every creature, no matter how small, deserves a chance to survive, and now hundreds more will

Image credits: FrogLog

See the FrogLog in action below:

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