Cold, Wet And Froggy
Okay Kids'! Who can tell me which animal was here about fifty million
years before the dinosaurs? I'll
give you a clue; they belong to a large group of animals called Amphibians,
which means "two lives or double life."
They can either live on land or in the water.
They can also save farmers millions of dollars by eating harmful
"yucky" bugs. But they don't eat dead bugs of course. We all knew that didn't we?
They come in various sizes and the smallest one is about the size of your
smaller toenail. Wow!
That's really small! The
largest one can be found in Africa and is almost a foot long.
His name is "Goliath."
Okay, if you still aren't sure what these animals are, I will describe
one to you in detail. I also happen to be one myself but being a highly educated
animal, I learned to read and write at an early age. This way you are able to learn about my ancestry.
I can't tell you just yet what kind of animal I am but I'm hoping you
will guess pretty soon so I can come out of hiding and introduce myself.
Here are some more clues to help you discover me… I have a short stocky
green body and my skin is very wet and smooth.
(I shed my skin often.) If
you ever tried to catch me, I've probably leaped away just in time.
My eyes are big and bulge out to help me see in all directions. I have no outer ears like you.
My front legs are short and my rear legs are long and full of muscles.
My rear feet are webbed so I can swim fast and jump really high.
Being a male, I have a vocal sack at the bottom of my throat that looks
like a big bubble. This is where my deep and low croaking sounds echo from.
My tongue folds back into my throat (no it doesn't hurt at all.)
It is long and sticky which helps me catch bugs.
Yes, I swallow the bugs' whole! Why
I've been known on occasion to eat a small snake if I'm really hungry.
Okay kids' it's time to show my face and introduce myself.
I am "Werther The Bull Frog."
I am a very large Bull Frog (Amphibian) that reads books, writes, and
wears wire- rimmed glasses. I am a
very wise old Bull Frog and all the younger frog lings come to me for advice.
Why I even had a female frog ling tell me there were no ponds around to
lay her eggs. This poses to be a
problem when you are in a hurry to lay a lot of eggs.
So I scoured the area and found the next best thing, a mud puddle.
She laid her eggs there and the rest is history.
Here's a little bit of that life cycle for you to better understand how
it all came about.
The eggs change into (my favorite word) "Polliwogs" or what you
might know as "tadpoles." (They
look like little fish.) I prefer
Polliwogs, to me that is a unique nickname those little critters seem to like.
Depending on they type of frog, it could take as little as a couple of
days or as much as thirty days for the eggs to hatch into Polliwogs.
Then it will go through (here's the big word) "Metamorphosis"
Phew! Which means it changes it's
form and becomes a frog.
In my case though, being a big handsome Bull Frog it took me three years
before I became a Bull Frog from a Polliwog.
That's a long time to run around looking like, well, a Polliwog!
I drew you a picture so you can see the transformation for yourselves.
What do you think? Quite a
metamorphosis! We've come a long
way from just sitting on lily pads all day wouldn't you say?
I'm really glad we had this discussion.
I need to go and help some more children learn about frogs, so if you'll
excuse me, I'll be on my way.
Copyright
1998 by Author Patti Tricoli
