What are frogs?
Frogs are amphibians. This means that they can live in the water and on land.
What are amphibians?
Amphibians are cold blooded animals. Their body temperature is the same as the surrounding temperature. They need sunlight to keep themselves warm and active. When it gets too hot, frogs need to hide in the shade or a burrow because they cannot cool down on their own either. Amphibians are sluggish or become inactive in the cold weather.
Why do some frogs hibernate?
Frogs in hibernate or go into a deep sleep to escape the cold winter. Some will burrow under thick leaves, some hide in holes and cracks and the aquatic species will partially bury themselves under the mud. During hibernation, their breathing and heartbeat will slow down a lot and their body temperature will adjust to be the same as the temperature of its surroundings.
Toad, Frogs, Polliwogs, Amphibian Kid Song
Where do frogs live?
Frogs live near ponds, streams and lakes. They need this kind of habitat to keep their body moist and water to lay their eggs. Most frogs are found in tropical countries. The weather there is a lot wetter and the tropical rain forest is thick with vegetation and moist, perfect for frogs.
What do frogs eat?
Frogs are carnivores or meat eaters. Their diet consists of bugs, worms, slugs, small animals and some even eat other frogs! Do you know that frogs do not eat anything that is dead? The like their food alive!
How do frogs hunt for food?
Frogs do not really go hunting for food. They usually sit quietly and wait for their prey to pass by and zap them with their long and sticky tongue and curls it back with its prey to swallow.
Teachers/Parents : Try out this fun frog craft with a tongue that hurls out and curls back.
However, do you know that there are tongueless frogs? Tongueless frogs are from the family Pipidae. These frogs with no tongues do not hunt for food the same way. They use their clawed fingers to catch their prey.
They are found in South America and sub-Saharan Africa.
They are aquatic creatures with webbed feet and fingers with sensory tips. They live most of their lives in the water.
The Surinam toad and albino clawed frog are examples of tongueless frogs.
Check out their webbed feet and clawed fingers.
How do frogs protect themselves from predators or enemies?
- Their moist and slippery skin makes it easy for them to slip away from predators
- They are very brightly colored ones are poisonous and their colors warn the predators. The poison dart or poison arrow frogs are examples. The cane toad of Australia is not brightly colored but it is also poisonous.
- Some have a bad and bitter taste. Toads secret these chemicals from their skins.
- Some use camouflage. This means they blend into the environment to make it hard for the predator to see them. Examples are the green tree frogs and the leopard frog.
- Some mimic or copy the colors of the poisonous frogs to trick the predator.
- Finally, they can also jump away.
Why do frogs croak after it rains?
- To attract a mate. The rain is an indication of their mating season.
- To let other frogs know that this is its territory.
How do frogs mate?
Credits :Surinam toad picture is taken from http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/117/0/c/Surinam_toad_by_Mallimaakari.jpg and picture of albino clawed frog from http://cdn-write.demandstudios.com/upload//0000/200/70/9/10279.jpgic