Frogs open door to icy mystery
- Thread starter Teegate
- Start date
I've always been fascinated by wood frogs for this reason. This ability gives them another advantage, too: wood frogs are the very first frogs to emerge and start breeding in late winter/spring. Since they don't burrow deep--they're out and having froggy fun for weeks before any of the other frogs are released from beneath layers of frozen water and earth.
they seem to have an alarm clock that goes off because when they breed they do it EXPLOSIVELY . . . they'll only breed in vernal pools and usually the same one they were born in . . . so when every wood frog in the area gathers at one pool (sometimes no more than a glorified puddle) to breed --- the sight and sound of it is just mind-blowing. I've seen up to five males all grasping onto the same female for breeding rights.
-Bob
they seem to have an alarm clock that goes off because when they breed they do it EXPLOSIVELY . . . they'll only breed in vernal pools and usually the same one they were born in . . . so when every wood frog in the area gathers at one pool (sometimes no more than a glorified puddle) to breed --- the sight and sound of it is just mind-blowing. I've seen up to five males all grasping onto the same female for breeding rights.
-Bob
So essentially, of all the people who have been frozen in nitrogen cooled cylinders, only the extremely diabetic ones whose glucose is very high will be able to be revived some day.
I snuck up on a vernal pond 2 years ago in late winter/early spring when I was scouting out a turkey hunting spot and the wood frogs were in full vocal mode.
Just like the article says, they quack. I first thought I was sneaking up on a group of fledgling wood ducks.
As soon as they could sense the vibrations from my footsteps, they went silent.
NJDEP maintains a database of the vernal ponds and many of the ones in my area are mapped. They are always looking for volunteers to help locate and map them too.
I'll start showing them where they are when they stop charging me $200.00+/- a year for licenses and permits to hunt and fish here.
Scott
Just like the article says, they quack. I first thought I was sneaking up on a group of fledgling wood ducks.
As soon as they could sense the vibrations from my footsteps, they went silent.
NJDEP maintains a database of the vernal ponds and many of the ones in my area are mapped. They are always looking for volunteers to help locate and map them too.
I'll start showing them where they are when they stop charging me $200.00+/- a year for licenses and permits to hunt and fish here.
Scott
I had a remarkable experience with wood frogs this past spring. I had come upon a vernal pool near the yellow dam branch, near 539 and 72. The pool was a buzz with dragon flies hovering about. I first thought it was my imagination when I saw a wood frog leap from a heath bush (leather-leaf as I recall) along the bank and consume a dragon fly in mid air.
Within the time frame of about an hour, I witnessed this behavior over and over again. There were maybe four frogs involved. They would climb (hop from branch to branch) about two feet up a heath bush, this was a long trail and error climb, then leap from the bush to catch a dragon fly in flight. Then landing in the water, they would eat the dragon fly. It appeared that their primary objective was to drown/restrain and then eat the flies rather than swallow them in the air. They had about a 35% success rate.
It was an amazing thing to see, and while I meant to, I never researched their eating habits to see if this is common behavior.
Jeff
Within the time frame of about an hour, I witnessed this behavior over and over again. There were maybe four frogs involved. They would climb (hop from branch to branch) about two feet up a heath bush, this was a long trail and error climb, then leap from the bush to catch a dragon fly in flight. Then landing in the water, they would eat the dragon fly. It appeared that their primary objective was to drown/restrain and then eat the flies rather than swallow them in the air. They had about a 35% success rate.
It was an amazing thing to see, and while I meant to, I never researched their eating habits to see if this is common behavior.
Jeff
Yeah, it really was amazing to see. It was clear that the climbing business was a fairly alkward process for them. These bushes were very thick so they had a high likelyhood of landing on something as they leaped up. The amazing thing was that, once landing on a branch, they would leap further to another. IT often took several attempts before they were situated correctly. Even more amazing was that they nailed these dragon flies. Not everytime as I mentioned, but dragon flies are very agile flyers.
The question is; are frogs intelligent enough to actually think this technique up on the spot, or is it a hunting trait that has been developed over generations to take advantage of an opportunity?
I should mention that the concentration of dragon flies in this area was denser that I had ever witnessed. Also I say dragon flies in general, they were probably damselflies which are not quite as agile as dragonflies but I can't recall exactly which they were now.
Jeff
The question is; are frogs intelligent enough to actually think this technique up on the spot, or is it a hunting trait that has been developed over generations to take advantage of an opportunity?
I should mention that the concentration of dragon flies in this area was denser that I had ever witnessed. Also I say dragon flies in general, they were probably damselflies which are not quite as agile as dragonflies but I can't recall exactly which they were now.
Jeff
woodjin said:
Even specific behaviors are inherited--especially in this case. There's probably a small amount of "monkey see, monkey do" learning involved, but not without the predispositions required to perform this behavoir in the first place.
Also its no coincidence that you saw it performed by several frogs at one pool. Like i said earlier--wood frogs generally return to the same pool they were born in when its time to breed, so chances are elevated of having genetically similar frogs at the same pool. Those frogs may have even been closely related--"brothers" in a sense. I've never seen nor heard of this particular behavior in any other case, so it could possibly even be specific to your wood frogs.
-Bob