Greetings, readers. One of my favorite children’s books (instructive and comforting for adults, too!) is Frog and Toad are Friends, by Arnold Lobel. It’s a wonderful, compelling story of friendship, the kind that affords the friends a chance for acceptance, room to grow and converse freely, and tenderly share the joy of life together.
Don’t underestimate the value of such a friendship. It can change your life.
In this “Caring for Mother Earth” series, I’m honored to share the writings of one such friend of mine: Peggy Sias Lantz.
Today, let’s see what Peggy says about real-life jumping, puffing, funny frogs and toads!
Mother Earth’s Creatures: Frogs and Toads
by Peggy Lantz
At three of the last four places I’ve lived, I have made myself a pond in the yard. Not sure why. I just like having a little pond with lily pads and minnows and frogs and dragonflies and things (never goldfish).
The one I have now has frogs. You know, don’t you, that frog babies, called tadpoles, eat mosquito larvae, so my pond doesn’t have a cloud of mosquitoes over it. And any wigglers that emerge and fly get snatched up by dragonflies.
I also net a few Gambusia, commonly called mosquito fish, in my lake to put in the pond to control mosquitoes. Gambusia bear their youngsters live and multiply rapidly. Frogs bear their young in egg batches.
One year, Lake Lucy went bone dry. Weeds grew up all over the bottom. I would walk around to see what was happening, and one day, I came upon a small round sinkhole about a foot deep and maybe six or so feet in diameter. It had a little water in it, and hundreds of frogs were there, and were—yes, they were—mating. I stood there shamelessly watching. Papa frog was on the back of mama frog. They were quiet and still.
And then …
A day or two later I went to see what was going on in the little sinkhole again. It was full of yellow gobs of gelatin-like stuff with lots of little black specks in it. Um-hmmm. This was beginning to get interesting.
A day or two later I went again. I found the water in the sinkhole swarming with tiny tadpoles. Things happen so fast! I watched them get bigger, then begin to show tiny hind feet. Then the tail got a bit shorter and the body a bit fatter.
In a few more days when I went to see, the edges of the sinkhole were swarming with little toads, about an inch long!
Toads and frogs and eggs, oh my!
Toads and frogs are amphibians, because their life cycle includes living in water and living on land. Eggs are laid and tadpoles are born in the water, then they undergo metamorphosis into land animals. Tadpoles eat algae, then, as toads or frogs, their gills change to lungs, their mouths, eyes, and other organs change completely to accommodate a new diet of insects.
The toads I watched in my little sinkhole changed so fast! I don’t remember exactly how long it took, but I think it was little more than a week. Toads and frogs often lay their eggs in ephemeral ponds, in deserts or on mountainsides where rain may fill a pond for a very short time.
Toads and frogs are disappearing to the point of being endangered. Scientists are studying why, but certainly one reason is our destruction of wetland habitats and small ponds, and the use of pesticides that kill the insects that frogs and toads eat.
I like having a frog pond. And there is no animal, bug, fish, bird, or plant that is not fascinating to see, watch, and study—and wonder about.
—END—
Thanks for reading!
Your writer on the wing,
Charlene
