Life Cycle of the Frog

In early adult frogs wake up from their long winter sleep and start making their way to breeding pools. Some frogs can travel as far as one  to the pond which is a long distance if all you can do is hop or crawl. When the frogs reach the pond, breeding begins with the male

When he finds a female he grabs her from behind with the help of special  on his fore limbs and holds on as tight as he can. As soon as the female releases her  into the water they are fertilized by the male.

The eggs or  are surrounded by jelly, which absorbs water, swells up, and floats to the surface of the pond where the sun  it. One clump of frogspawn can contain up to 4,000 eggs.

After about 10 days a tadpole wriggles out of each egg. At first the tadpole breathes and moves like a , using its gills and long tail, but after about five weeks the gills disappear and the tadpole develops . It then has to swim to the surface of the water to breath . The tadpole has fleshy lips with rows of teeth for rasping away at water plants and by seven weeks it also eats insects and even other .

By eight weeks the back  have formed and by ten to eleven weeks the front legs have also appeared. At twelve to fourteen weeks the tail disappears and the tiny froglet is ready to leave the water. It will take three years before the  reaches maturity and the cycle starts all over again.