QUESTION ABOUT FROGS....

[Mmathis]

You'd think I would know the answer to this question, but...... When tadpoles first turn into frogs, how close are they to their adult size? IOW, do they continue to grow and get bigger?

I saw a tiny little frog today, resting on a water lettuce leaf. [Could have been a toad, no expert here, as we do have toad-poles in the pond, but the toad-poles don't even have legs yet so doubt it's a baby toad.] I'd say it was less than 1/2" long. Couldn't see it well enough to get any ID info other than it was light brown, and when I tried to catch it, it made a good LEAP across the pond. Just wondering if it was an adult [whatever] or a baby [whatever]. Only saw the one, though.

 

[adavisus]

The small frog may have been a... small type of frog if it could leap so well

A chorus frog is likely to be less than an inch in size and leap a long way

Yes, small new frogs often have a long way to go before they are mature, if they are a big type of frog

Some frogs don't grow big

 

[Mmathis]

Thanks! Hope my question didn't sound too, well, stupid..... I raised a batch of Southern Leopards a few years ago, and they did grow more after they morphed. And from the one exposure to this little guy, the "leaping" part was the ONLY characteristic I could identify (isn't it: toads hop, and frogs leap?). But we haven't had any frog eggs, and none of the toad-poles are even close to being "toads" yet. And can't say I've seen a frog this tiny around here. I'm all about the what-is-it?, and hope I see more of this little guy so I can learn more about him.

FYI, we did have some courting of Cope's Gray Tree Frog a month or so back, but we weren't the recipients of any eggs.

 

[brandonsdad02]

Kind of think of frogs as babies. They come out small and get big. All of our tads that we have had in our pond have been mostly toads. I'll see many different sizes of them roaming around the yard and knowing that they probably came from my pond last year or this year. We have 4 bull frogs in the pond right now. We started with one bull frog tad and some how we ended up with 4 tads but never at once. It was always one tad at a time for the bull frogs.

 

[j.w]

What I was wondering since we are on the frog subject was do they stay one color or can they change from green to brown or visa versa as they grow?

 

[addy1]

morphing

adult green frog head etc became greener as an adult

 

[Mmathis]

What I was wondering since we are on the frog subject was do they stay one color or can they change from green to brown or visa versa as they grow?

Good question, since many critters in nature have natural defenses to protect them when they're young & more vulnerable.

 

[j.w]

So looks like the green frog changes some anyways, thanks addy. Wonder if they all do to some extent? Ok went and looked:

CENTER FOR GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION - Hamline University
There are a number of frogs and toads that can change color, depending on the temperature or substrate. In the US the best known example is the Gray Tree Frogs which regularly change from bright green to gray.

Says for more info check out: Mattison's Frogs and Toads of the World. http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9418.html