Category Archives: Life Cycle of Frogs

03/1/10

First Monogamous Frogs Discovered

This past week the first monogamous frogs were discovered in the rainforest of South America. Monogamy isn’t usual in the amphibian world. Male frogs usually love ’em and leave ’em.

But Dr. Jason Brown, previously of East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, and his colleagues, discovered a monogamous frog species Ranitomeya imitator, known as the mimic poison frog,

According to the BBC Earth News article, “Peru Poison Frog Reveals Secret of Monogamy,” after mating, a female mimic poison frog lays her eggs on the surface of leaves. After the tadpoles hatch, the male frog carries them one by one on his back to pools of water that collect in bromeliad leaves high up in the branches of trees. Each tadpole is put into its own tiny pool and the father looks after them. When the tadpoles become hungry, the male calls to his female partner who lays a non-fertile egg, which the tadpole eats, in each pool.

Why are these frogs monogamous and others aren’t? Scientists believe the mimic poison frogs have become mongamous as they evolved to live in small pools. The frogs wouldn’t have survived without the care of both mother and father because there is little natural food in these tiny pools. If the pools were bigger, there would have been more available food and the the frogs wouldn’t have to work together to feed and raise the tadpoles.

“These frogs are truly devoted to their offspring, and to each other,” says Dr. Brown, who is now at Duke University.

Father and mother R. imitator frogs guard a leaf pool where the mother just deposited a nutritious egg for the tadpole to eat. Photo by Jason Brown, from Science magazine site

Father and mother R. imitator frogs guard a leaf pool where the mother just deposited a nutritious egg for the tadpole to eat. Photo by Jason Brown, from Science magazine site

Image from ScienceNOW blog (Science magazine)

02/22/10

Wood Frogs Are (Almost) Celebrating Spring

In October, when we wrote our post Winter Turns Frogs into Frogsicles, the wood frogs and spring peepers had settled down for their long (frozen) winter nap. This blog post from The National Parks Traveler, Frogs are a Sure Sign of Spring, But that Doesn’t Mean You Won’t Hear Them Now, reminds us that even though it’s still winter (at least in the Northeast), it’s almost spring for the wood frogs. As the snow melts and the frogs unfreeze in late winter/early spring,  the young frogs have one thing on their minds: the males start calling immediately to potential mates.

I found this lovely video on YouTube by someone called Mysterious Susan (not our Susan though). It does have a mysterious quality as a reminder of the cycle of life.

Also, check out this blog post, “As Winter Wanes,”  in the East Hampton (Long Island, New York) Star about what songbirds, salamanders, and other animals are up to as we approach spring and the daylight hours get longer every day.

12/20/09

A Frog's Dream…Save Our Home

As the year ends, and before we take a short break for the holidays, we’d like to show you the new poster we’ve created to promote our cause. Proceeds from the sale of the poster will go toward amphibian conservation organizations and toward developing free and inexpensive educational materials for kids.

Poster designed by Susan Newman, Illustration © Sherry Neidigh

Poster designed by Susan Newman, Illustration © Sherry Neidigh

The poster is a unique collaboration between my partner Susan (who is a graphic designer when she isn’t saving frogs) and illustrator Sherry Neidigh. Sherry approached us after seeing our blog and offered to donate one of her illustrations for our use. We were thrilled to receive this exquisite illustration to promote our cause.

Susan played around with various ideas, but what struck her about this illustration was its dreamy quality. She came up with the text, “A Frog’s Dream….Save Our Home.” I think these words are perfect. That frog looks so content immersed in his pond, surrounded by dragonflies and lily pads.

A bit about Sherry:

Sherry has been drawing animals since she was 2 years old. She attended the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, and has worked for Hallmark Cards.

Sherry’s clients include the National Wildlife Federation (Your Big Backyard), Highlights for Children, Sylvan Dell Publishing, and NorthWord Publisher. She works in gouache, watercolor, colored pencils, airbrush, and pen and ink. Her latest book is Count Down to Fall by Fran Hawk, published by Sylvan Dell Publishers. Sherry lives in Simpsonville, South Carolina, outside of Greenville, with her two dogs, Harper and Bisbee. You can learn more about her by visiting her charming website.

Susan and I are so grateful for the use of Sherry’s beautiful illustration. We hope you love the poster as much as we do. Susan also designed a t-shirt with the illustration. Both are available in our store.

Happy Holidays!

10/29/09

Winter Turns Frogs into Frogsicles

This past Sunday, my husband and I went for long hike in Harriman State Park in New York. In late March and early April, the sound of the spring peepers is deafening. But the other day we heard only one or two peepers. I did a little research to find out what happens to the peepers in the fall and winter. What exactly do they do from now until early spring?

Wood Frog

Wood Frog

Frogs and toads have evolved strategies to survive freezing temperatures. Wood frogs and spring peepers actually become a “frogsicle,” as Larry Lyons explains in his article, “All the Frogs Will Soon be Frogsicles” in the Niles (MI) Daily Star. The frogs will soon find a place under the leaf litter or in a crack in a log or rock to settle for their winter nap. They’ll slowly begin to freeze as soon as temperatures reach the freezing point. The frog’s blood stops flowing, its lungs, heart and muscles stop functioning, and ice fills the body cavity. As Niles writes, “We now have a frogsicle in suspended animation.”

About 65% of the frog is frozen. It manufactures large amounts of blood sugar that serve as anti-freeze, preventing ice damage to its organs. When spring temperatures are consistently above freezing, they begin to thaw out and break out in a chorus of frog calls (as mating season begins).

What about other frogs and toads? Toads dig a burrow under the frost line, where they go into a mild state of hibernation. Their metabolism slows down and they no longer need food or water. Aquatic frogs such as green frogs go into what’s called a state of torpor. They descend to oxygen rich deep water, find a hiding place, and don’t move around much until the spring comes.

Perhaps we are more like animals than we care to admit. I know I slow down in late fall and hibernate until spring!

09/3/09

Urban Frogs' Love Calls Go Unanswered in Australia

Kirsten Parris, an Australian ecologist, has discovered that noise of traffic and machinery may be contributing to the decline of frogs in Melbourne.

Female frogs are attracted to male frogs that have the loudest calls. But what if they can’t hear them calling due to all the noise? Frogs have adapted—they are expending more energy to make their croaks louder, using higher pitches to drown out the lower frequency traffic. But frogs with low-pitched croaks are at a disadvantage. According to this article in Eco-Wordly, “Without the noise of the traffic and machinery, pobblebonk frogs can be heard by females at distances up to 875 yards. But add in some traffic and other noise, and the distance is reduced to only 46 feet!”

Living in a city, I’m all for reducing noise. Just today, I heard a jackhammer, a loud droning drill next door, police sirens, not to mention the sounds of cars, trucks, and planes. The question is, how can this noise be reduced? Any ideas? Perhaps during the frog mating season, people could be a little quieter! (Not an issue in our city however. No frogs here!)

The Pobbledonk or Banjo frog is named for its distinctive "bonk" call, which sounds like a banjo string being plucked. Photo by Donna Flynn

The Pobblebonk or Banjo frog is named for its distinctive "bonk" call, which sounds like a banjo string being plucked. Photo by Donna Flynn

To learn more about Aussie frogs, check out the Frogs Australia Network.

08/19/09

Rainy Nights in Georgia (and Texas, Florida, and New Jersey) Help Frogs

Susan posed an interesting question to me yesterday. How has the record rainfall in the U.S. effected our amphibian friends? Humans have been somewhat inconvenienced by the cool, rainy summer of ’09—canceled picnics, damp weddings, rainy vacations, and decreased sales of ice cream. But as I’ve found out, all this rain has been a boon for amphibians. Here are a few stories from around the country:

Georgia: This summer Southwest Georgia was soaked with rain, but this helped researchers with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, who released over 1000 gopher frog tadpoles in a seasonal pond at a Nature Conservancy site. These rare stubby, nocturnal frogs spend most of their lives in gopher tortoise burrows and are found almost exclusively in the Coastal Plain’s longleaf pine ecosystem.The water level of the release pond was at its highest level ever, which will help the tadpoles survive, according to an article on the Early County News, GA website.

West Texas: It’s usually pretty hot and arid in the summer in West Texas. But in an article in the Odessa American (TX), Ken Broadnax explains how this dry land can be temporarily transformed into a wetlands. The playas, dry areas with hard clay bottoms, can store water for months. Amphibians bury themselves in the playa, emerging only when conditions are right. After a storm, within a day or two, the male toads emerge and begin their calls, seeking a mate. This summer, West Texans are hearing the unfamiliar sounds of croaking toads.

Florida: According to the AccuWeather blog, rainstorms around Memorial Day caused an excess of standing water, which created a breeding haven for the 30+ species of frogs in Florida. These rain-filled ponds called vernal pools lack fish because they eventually dry up, and so they are ideal nurseries for tadpoles (fish eat tadpoles). All those baby tadpoles from spring are now adult frogs—and there are lots of them. Frog calls are most abundant in the mating season, but they can be heard year-round in Florida for some species. So that’s why some Floridians are being kept awake this summer by the high-pitched calls of the Ornate Chorus Frogs, among other frog choirs.


Ornate Chorus Frog, photograph by Rebecca Meegan, Coastal Plains Institute and Land Conservancy

Ornate Chorus Frog, photograph by Rebecca Meegan, Coastal Plains Institute and Land Conservancy

New Jersey: This summer has been so wet in New Jersey that I’ve rarely had to water my garden. In the early summer, we found a slug in our kitchen almost every night. Maybe even the slugs were tired of the rain. While this rainy weather was depressing (it’s over, thank goodness), it was great for New Jersey amphibians like the endangered Pine Barrens tree frog, as reported in the Press of Atlantic City. The Nature Conservancy recently acquired some land in the Pine Barrens that contains many vernal ponds. Because of the record rainfall, one of these ponds now measures 30 feet, providing an excellent breeding area for the endangered tree frog.Vernal pools are disappearing throughout New Jersey because of overdevelopment. That gave me an idea…perhaps we can convince The Boss (aka Bruce Springsteen) to get involved in our cause!

Have you noticed an increase in frogs and toads in your area due to record rainfall?