Did You Know... These Fun Facts About Frogs? |
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There are nearly 4000 known types of frogs. |
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Adult frogs will eat just about anything smaller than themselves, even including other frogs! |
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There are frogs everywhere in the world, except Antartica! |
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Frogs are characterized by their bulging eyes; strong, long webbed hind feet; smooth or slimy skin; and the fact that they lay eggs in clusters. |
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Toads, on the other hand, have short stubby bodies and hind legs; warty and dry skin; and they tend to lay eggs in long chains. They also have paratoid (or poison) glands behind the eyes. |
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Between 6 and 21 days after an egg is fertilized and laid, it will hatch – and a tadpole will be formed! The tadpole will stick itself to floating weeds or grasses and feed on the yolk remaining from their egg – which is actually in their guts! Eventually, the tadpole will begin to swim around and eat algae, and approx. 4 weeks later its gills will grow over and disappear. |
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After 6 weeks or so, a tadpole will start to grow legs and it will begin to feast on items like dead insects and plants. Bye 12 weeks, the tadpole has only a small part of a tail left and looks like a smaller version of an adult frog. Once it becomes an adult frog, it will leave the water and search for mates so that it can begin the whole process all over again. |
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When frogs swallow their food, their eyeballs close and go down into their head! This happens because the eyeballs apply pressure and help to push the frog’s food down it’s throat. |
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Frogs can jump over 20 times their own length. |
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Frogs drink and breathe through their skin. Frogs don’t need to swallow water, they just absorb it through their skin. While they do breathe in oxygen through their lungs, they also absorb it from the water through their skin. |
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In order to keep it healthy, frogs shed their skin frequently. Once they have shed their skin, they eat it! |
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Frogs have to be ware of snakes, lizards, birds, and some small animals like hedgehogs. Even other frogs could eat them! The frogs biggest enemy, however, isn’t another animal – it’s pollution. Over the years, the worldwide frog population has been declining, and this has been linked to an increase in pollution and the decrease of the ozone layer. |
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Some frogs can change their color, according to light, moisture, temperature, or even their mood. |
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The more colorful a frog, often the more poisonous it is. |
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"Horny Toads" aren’t even toads – they're actually lizards. They were called Horny Toads because they're face looks like that of a toad and they have short and wide bodies. |
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Frogs in cold areas (such as here in Canada!) burrow under forest leaves and hibernate until it warms up again outside. |
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