Alaskan officials are playing Death Squad Scrooges this year to live Pacific Chorus frogs found in Christmas trees.

Christmas trees for sale in the Anchorage area are adorned with something truly different this holiday season — live Pacific Chorus frogs.

While the small frogs are very cute with lovely moss-colored green sides and black spots, state officials are asking residents to practice some tough love.

If you find a Christmas tree frog, kill it.

Pacific Chorus frogs, as known as Pacific Tree frogs, are less than two inches long. The frogs are known for carrying fungi and viruses. One such virus, chytridiomycosis, or the “Ebola for Frogs”, which has been responsible for wiping out amphibian populations “around the globe”:

First discovered in 1998, the fungal disease called chytridiomycosis has been implicated in the collapse of amphibian populations in Central America, Australia, Europe and other places. Researchers documented its march across Panama and the carnage left behind. In North America, the fungus is rampant in California’s Sierra Nevada. It has been linked to die-offs in Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona.

But in other parts of the world, notably South America and the Northeastern United States, the fungus is present but doesn’t seem to be fatal, Wake said.

“In some places, when it arrives it’s a death knell. Then there are places where it doesn’t have an epidemic effect, and we don’t understand why.”

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