Life Cycle Frogs | Frogs Are Green

Posts Tagged ‘life cycle frogs’

Love Underground: The Shovel-Nosed Chamber Frog

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

We never stop being amazed by how amphibians are able to survive in the harshest environments. The Shovel-Nosed Chamber frog (Leptodactylus bufonius), for example, lives in the dry subtropical or tropical shrublands or grasslands of Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil, in areas that have only intermittent freshwater lakes, marshes, and ponds. But this frog has evolved many incredible adaptations for overcoming the challenges of living in these mostly dry conditions.

Going Underground

Unlike most frogs, Shovel-Nosed frogs don’t have ponds or other aquatic areas in which to lay their eggs. They have only the muddy remains of ponds that have dried up. So with their shovel-like noses, they dig a chamber in the mud and then top it with a mud cone. Because no water can penetrate these chambers, the frogs produce a foam nest from the female’s albumin secretions to keep the tadpoles moist. But there is no food in the nest—scientists believe the tadpoles metabolize their own issues for food. Then the frogs wait for a big rainstorm that will wash away the burrow and create a predator-free pond (like a vernal pool) for the tadpoles to grow in. But the story isn’t quite over. After the Shovel-Nosed frogs vacate their burrow, a local toad reuses it as a hiding place.

Take a look at this amazing video of the Shovel-Nosed frog by FROGS ARE GREEN friend Joe Furman. We especially like the frogs’ little mating wiggle!

About the filmmaker:

Joe Furman lives in Houston Texas. He is a lifelong animal photographer and makes wildlife documentaries, mostly about reptiles and amphibians. He is also an artist and cartoonist and father of one.

Like most kids, Joe was attracted to frogs and toads and caught and kept them as pets for awhile, but then would release them back into the wild. He had, and still has, a neverending curiosity about tadpoles and the life cycle of frogs. In his twenties he got the chance to go to Costa Rica to look for the Golden Toads. This event set the course of his life ever since. He has traveled around the world with different organizations to study, film, and photograph reptiles and amphibians, and other wildlife. The kid has never left him. He still love frogs!

Tags: adaptations, amphibian life cycle, frog adaptations, frogs Paraguay, frogs South America, Joe Furman, Leptodactylus bufonius, life cycle frogs, Shovel-nosed chamber frog, video shovel-nosed frog
Posted in Learn about Frogs, Life Cycle of Frogs, Meet the Frogs, Uncategorized | No Comments »

How Frogs and Toads Adapt To Winter’s Chill

Friday, December 10th, 2010

It’s mid-December and we’re inside keeping warm, while temperatures outside are below freezing (in parts of the northern hemisphere, that is). But what about our amphibian friends? How do they survive the winter? After all, they would seem vulnerable to temperature extremes with their thin skins and need to constantly stay moist.

Actually, we don’t need to worry about the frogs. They are well-equipped to deal with the cold weather, even with Arctic temperatures.

In the fall, frogs first need to find a place to make their winter home, a living space called a hibernaculum, that will protect them from weather extremes and from predators. The frog then “sleeps” away the winter by slowing down its metabolism. When spring arrives, it wakes up and leaves the hibernaculum, ready for mating and eating.

Aquatic frogs and toads such as the leopard frog and American bullfrog usually hibernate underwater. They don’t, however, dig into the mud like turtles—turtles are able to slow down their metabolism in a much more extreme way than frogs and can get by with almost no oxygen. Aquatic frogs need more oxygen—they lie just above the mud, or only partially buried in the mud, so they are near the oxygen-rich water. They may even occasionally slowly swim around.

Terrestrial frogs and toads typically hibernate on land. Those frogs and toads that are good diggers like the American toads burrow deep into the soil, safely below the frost line. Some frogs, such as the wood frog and the spring peeper, aren’t good diggers and so must scout out their winter homes in deep cracks and crevices in logs or rocks, or they might dig down into the leaf litter.

Yet these frozen frogs aren’t dead—they have a kind of natural anti-freeze in their bodies. Ice crystals form in their organs and body cavity, but a high concentration of glucose in the frog’s vital organs prevents freezing. A partially frozen frog will stop breathing: its heart will stop beating and it will seem dead. When spring approaches and their hibernaculum warms up above freezing, the frog’s frozen body will thaw, and it will come back to life.

As you go about your holiday, all bundled up for the cold, think of the frogs with their amazing adaptations for survival, safe in their winter homes, waiting for spring.

Here’s a video from YouTube about the hibernation of a wood frog. It’s pretty amazing—take a look!