(fairy tale inspired by this frog) |
Adorably Cute Baby Frog!! Okay, so my dad found this adorably cute baby frog hiding under a flowerpot on our porch. I looked up all the frogs on the Outdoor Alabama website, but couldn't identify this little guy. All I know is that he's tiny, totally cute, and that I'm definitely falling for those golden eyes! (sorry I included so many pictures, but he was just so cute in each one!) Just so you know, I grow a tiny wood sorrel plant inside that old pickel jar. It makes a perfect temporary home for small lizards and frogs--a tiny micro-habitat surrounded by glass. And by the way, frogs are amphibians, which means that they have moist skin that they literally "breathe" through. For this reason it's not a good idea to "pet" a frog--our skin sort of dries their out. They are also cold-blooded ("ectothermic," as they now say) and will burrow down in the dirt to stay warm during the winter. All frogs begin life as spawn (eggs) in the water and do their first exploring as tadpoles. But they soon develop four legs, with back legs that are long and strong for leaping. Aquatic frogs have webbed feet for swimming, but terrestrial (ground-dwelling) and arboreal (tree-dwelling) frogs lack the webbing. Also, you cannot get warts from frogs or toads. The "warts" on their backs are actually filled with toxins that taste really bad to anything that happens to bite them. The idea is that the predator will be disgusted and spit the poor hopper back out. Other amphibians include newts, salamanders, and caecilians (strange creatures that look like a cross between a worm and a snake). |
