Sunday, March 25, 2012

Common Toads and a Green Frog




green frog













This is the frog lake, where the green frog lives, but this day of spring there were toads around the lake and on the gravel road. A single green frog came out, which is very early for a green frog. It looked like it was very much interested in the toads, maybe the frog thought it was a toad, but there was no interest from the toads. They were only interested in their own business.
  
toads and a green frog.
The common toad emerges from hibernation in spring and there is a mass migration towards the breeding ponds. Adults use the same pond year after year and over 80% of males marked as juveniles have been found to return to the pond where they were spawned. The males arrive first and remain in the location for several weeks while the females only stay long enough to mate and spawn. The males mount on the females' backs, grasping them with their fore limbs in a grip that is known as amplexus. The males are very enthusiastic, will try to grasp fish or inanimate objects and often mount on the backs of other males. Sometimes several toads form a heap, each male trying to grasp the female at the base. It is a stressful period and mortality is high among breeding toads A successful male stays in amplexus for several days and, as the female lays a long, double string of small black eggs, he fertilises them with his sperm. As the pair wander piggyback around the shallow edges of the pond, the gelatinous egg strings, which may be 3 to 4.5 metres (10 to 15 ft) in length, get tangled in plant stalks. They absorb water and swell in size, and small tadpoles hatch out of the eggs after a fortnight to three weeks.
The common toad matures at age three to seven and may live for ten years.






photo Addit 24 March 2012: grethe bachmann

6 comments:

Gerry Snape said...

thankyou for the interesting post!...our pond is chock a block full of frog spawn at the moment...but as the son says they'll so0on be gobbling one another up!! well that's nature.

Carolyn said...

Frogs are something I know very little about... very interesting post!

I find their croaking relaxing for some reason. night sounds....

Here in Arkansas there is a festival dedicated to them. pretty silly stuff....

Toad Suck Daze .... they are raced and coddled and lots of thises and thats...;)

http://toadsuck.org/

Thyra said...

Hej Gerry! It must be interesting to have a pond. Well, they'll disappear those little things. Nature is manifold. Hope it's the right word! Toads are ugly, and they are like the toads from the fairy tales. Frogs are nicer looking, but I would never eat them! Their place in the fairy tale is also nicer than the toads'. Kiss the frog and you'll meet the prince!

Grethe ´)

Thyra said...

Hello Carolyn!
A festival. Do people dress like frogs?

Carolyn, it was so silly, because the toads and the frog were on the gravel road where a car came once in a while, and I was afraid they would be crushed by a car. So we tried gently to push them over in the grass. They began jumping over in the grass by themselves, but I could not hold my hand over them the rest of the day! So silly!

Grethe ´)

Teresa Evangeline said...

Well, I'm certainly glad that's not the human practice. :) Interesting post. Thank you, Grethe.

Thyra said...

Hej Teresa; it was an unusual meeting on the road!
Cheers
Grethe ´)