CHARACTERISTICS Frogs have very good eyesight.

They bulge out the sides of their heads in order for the frog to see in nearly all directions. Frogs also have amazing sense of hearing. You can often tell the difference between a male and female frog by the size of their eardrum, which can be seen behind their eyes. If the eardrum is smaller than the eye, the frog is a female. On males their eardrum is the same size as the eye. Frogs have very powerful back legs and webbed feet that help them jump great distances, as well as, swim. Frogs even use their legs to dig, or burrow, underground for hibernating. Certain frogs can jump up to 20 times their own body length in a single leap. Every different species of frog has his or her own look. They come in many colors, patterns and sizes. Frogs have many predators. Animal predators include birds, fish and reptiles. Most rainforest frogs have pads of sticky hairs on their fingers and toes, as well as, loose sticky skin on their bellies, that make them great climbers to escape their predators. Many of these frogs live in high trees for safety. Other frogs are very good at camouflaging themselves so that they blend in with their environment, making it harder for their enemies to find them. A frog can change the colour of its skin depending on its surroundings. Humans have become a major danger for amphibians of all types. Water pollution is causing many deformities in frogs as well as poisoning them, and loss of habitat through the building of roads and houses. In some countries, frogs legs are considered a delicacy, which means that people love to eat them! Eew! Breathing is a gas exchange, taking in oxygen from the surroundings and letting out carbon dioxide. All frogs start life as aquatic tadpoles, breathing underwater through internal gills and their skin. Then later most develop into land animals with lungs for breathing air. But in all stages breathing is controlled by pulsing the throat. Most frogs lose their gills when they metaorphise. Frogs breath with their mouths closed. Their throat movements pull air through the nostrils to the lungs. Then breathe out with body contractions. The activity and temperature of an animal determine how important breathing is. Anurans have much more complex lungs then other amphibians, such as salamanders, because they're more active and have higher body temperature. Lungs can also help in water. Filling the lungs with air gives frog better buoyancy, making it float more easily. Frogs can also breath through their skin, with tiny blood vessels, capillaries, under the outer skin layers. The African 'Hairy' frog, Trichobatrachus robustus, has small lungs and during breeding seasons the males get hair like projections on their back legs. This is because of the high oxygen needs at this time.

THE DATING GAME/REPRODUCTION when male frogs are ready to mate they will call out to the female frogs. Each different species of frog has their own special sound and that is the sound that the same species of female frog will answer to. Some frogs are so loud they can be heard a mile away! After they meet, they find a suitable spot to mate and lay their eggs. The male frog will hug the female from behind and as she lays eggs, usually in the water, the male will fertilize them. After that the eggs are on their own, to survive and become tadpoles. There are a few species of frogs that will look after their babies, but not many. When Frogs mate, the male frog tends to clasp the female underneath in an embrace called am plexus. He literally climbs on her back, reaches his arms around her "waist", either just in front of the hind legs, just behind the front legs, or even around the head. Am plexus can last several days! Usually, it occurs in the water, though some species, like the buffos on the right mate on land or even in trees! While in some cases, complicated courting behavior occurs before mating, many species of frogs are known for attempting to mate with anything that moves which isn't small enough to eat! Spawn (egg-mass) While in the am plexus position, the male frog fertilizes the eggs as they get are laid. Frogs tend to lay eggs single eggs in masses, whereas toads usually lay eggs in long chains. Some frogs leave after this point, but others stick around to watch over the little ones. Some have very unusual ways of caring for their young. You'll learn about some of those later in this tour! Egg Frogs and Toads tend to lay many eggs because there are many hazards between fertilization and full grown frogness! Those eggs that die tend to turn white or opaque. The lucky ones that actually manage to hatch still start out on a journey of many perils. Life starts right as the central yolk splits in two. It then divides into four, then eight, etc. - until it looks a bit like a raspberry inside a jello cup. Soon, the embryo starts to look more and more like a tadpole, getting longer and moving about in its egg. Usually, about 6-21 days (average!) after being fertilized, the egg will hatch. Most eggs are found in calm or static waters, to prevent getting too rumbled about in infancy! Some frogs, like the Coast foam-nest tree frog, actually mate in tree branches overlooking static bonds and streams. Their egg masses form large cocoonlike foamy masses. The foam sometimes cakes dry in the sun, protecting the inside moisture. When the rain comes along, after development of 7 to 9 days, the foam drips down, dropping tiny tadpoles into the river or pond below. Tadpole Shortly after hatching, the tadpole still feeds on the remaining yolk, which is actually in its gut! The tadpole at this point consists of poorly developed gills, a mouth, and a tail. It's really fragile at this point. They usually will stick themselves to floating weeds or grasses in the water using little sticky organs between its' mouth and belly area. Then, 7 to 10 days after the tadpole has hatched, it will begin to swim around and feed on algae. After about 4 weeks, the gills start getting grown over by skin, until they eventually disappear. The tadpoles get teeny tiny teeth which help them grate food turning it into soupy oxygenated particles. They have long coiled guts

that help them digest as much nutrients from their meager diets as possible. By the fourth week, tadpoles can actually be fairly social creatures. Some even interact and school like fish! Tadpole with legsAfter about 6 to 9 weeks, little tiny legs start to sprout. The head becomes more distinct and the body elongates. By now the diet may grow to include larger items like dead insects and even plants. The arms will begin to bulge where they will eventually pop out, elbow first. After about 9 weeks, the tadpole looks more like a teeny frog with a really long tail. It is now well on its way to being almost full-grown! Young Frog, or Frog let by 12 weeks, the tadpole has only a teeny tail stub and looks like a miniature version of the adult frog. Soon, it will leave the water, only to return again to lay more eggs and start the process all over again! Frog By between 12 to 16 weeks, depending on water and food supply, the frog has completed the full growth cycle. Some frogs that live in higher altitudes or in colder places might take a whole winter to go through the tadpole stage...others may have unique development stages that vary from your "traditional" tadpole-in-the-water type life cycle: some of these are described later in this tour. Now these frogs will start the whole process again...finding mates and creating new froggies.