Metamorphosis

Last Thursday, the oldest chorus frog tadpole started looking a little lumpy on the front. The eyes were moving upwards. The legs were a bit longer, but mostly were noticeably bulking up. Its little belly was so round and tight that it looked about to burst.

Chorus frog tadpole last Thursday, May 11. Its leg is against the glass.

I didn’t notice much change over the next two days. I was, therefore, surprised to find a frog in the jar Sunday morning. It’s possible that it had been hiding in the grasses at the bottom of the jar while it went through its metamorphosis.

It's a frog! And a beautiful one.

It was tiny and very cute. I picked it up so you could see the scale of it compared to my fingers. Its tail was still very long.

With fingers to show the scale

Two other chorus frog tadpoles and on toad tadpole on May 14. The chorus frog at the lower left is looking lumpy on the front and its mouth is widening.

I had to thin the herd again and change the water. Let’s show the side-by-side again:

April 25

April 25

May 6

May 6

May 14: note the mature chorus frog and that most of the toads have legs.

May 14, including one frog and most of the toad tadpoles with legs.

I took the jar outside before I removed the cheese cloth. I counted a dozen mosquitoes clinging to the cloth. Still, the size of the swarm that emerged amazed me. I kept the little frog and two of the larger toad tadpoles. I walked with the jar and the other 9 tadpoles out to the fluddle. And I was in for another surprise. Two weeks ago, when I was gone (of course) on a rainy day, Terry saw four sandhill cranes in the fluddle. The next day we both saw a great blue heron. Why, we wondered, would such large birds fool with such tiny tadpoles?

Answer: because there are millions of them, and they congregate in huge numbers.

The black at the left is solid, roiling tadpoles

I released the extra tadpoles and filled the jar with fresh water. I also got some filamentous algae that had started to grow on the top of the water. The more photosynthesis, the better, I thought.

I put the keepers back in the jar and started up the air pump. I got two sticks to float on top in case the frog wanted to climb out.

This morning, Two more mosquitoes had hatched out. I saw with alarm that the frog was struggling against the current from the air stone. It had to be close to needing to breathe air. I didn’t want it to drown. Good thing I had the algae to add oxygen to the water. The next time I checked, the frog was climbing on the air stone. Shortly after that, it was on a stick. Just before I left for work, it was clinging to the glass above the water, and the mosquitoes were gone.

On the stick

A good view of the shrinking tail

I really had to let it go. I could count on the mosquitoes to hatch out fast enough to keep the frog fed. When I got home, the tail was markedly shorter, less than half what it had been just the day before. I put it in a little container with a little water and walked out to his birthplace. It didn’t hop out readily. I had to flood the cup so it would work its way to the lip as it followed the air and avoided the water. Once free, it graciously sat motionless so I could get one more picture. Good luck, little guy! 

Back in the wild