Frogs
Frogs are amazing creatures who can do some incredible things. They are excellent jumpers, breathe underwater as well as on land, and can lay up to 4,000 eggs at once!
Here's some fun facts about frogs:
-
Female frogs lay clusters of jelly-like eggs with tiny black dots in water, which are called frogspawn.
-
The frogspawn become tadpoles with tails and gills for swimming and breathing underwater.
-
As they grow, the tadpoles magically lose their tales, grow legs, and then grow lungs so they can hop onto land.
-
Frogs don’t drink water with their mouths but absorb the water they need directly through the wet slippery skin of their bellies.
-
Frogs are amazing acrobats and have giant, strong back legs that work like coiled springs. They can jump up to 20 times their own body length, which is the same as a human leaping right over a car!
-
Frogs never close their eyes, even when they sleep. They can see forwards, sideways and upwards all at the same time.
-
Frogs can also change the colour of their skin depending on the weather to help them blend in with the garden.
-
Frogs use their eyes to help them swallow food. When they blink, their eyeballs are pushed downwards which creates a bulge in the roof of their mouth. The bulge then squeezes the food down the back of its throat.
-
Frogs also help the garden thrive by eating pests and bugs.
-
A group of frogs is called an army.
How Your Family Can Help Frogs
If you have a garden, you can build a mini pond. Even a washing-up bowl sunk into the ground gives frogs a safe place to breed in the spring. Make sure it has gently sloping sides so little froglets can hop in and out.
Frogs love to hide away during the day so you can help them stay cool by building a frog hotel by piling up old logs, twigs, rocks, and damp leaves in a quiet, shady corner.
Leave a small patch of grass to grow long so the frogs have a cool, damp place to hunt for insects without drying out.
In the Winter, frogs love to hibernate under big compost heaps, paving slabs, or under garden sheds. If you can work out where they are, you can put out a winter 'blanket' for them made from bits of wood, compost, turf, old logs and leaves.