Frogs Are Important Part Of The Ecosystem – Save Them

By Author: Ann Philip
Total Articles: 91
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Do you think animals can predict weather conditions? Yes, especially frogs can foretell the onset of rainy season. The constant croaking of frogs indicates the arrival of rainy season. Among amphibians, frogs are the familiar group. We can see frogs in all most every part of the world, except in some polar regions, oceanic islands and desert regions.

It is estimated that nearly 4800 varieties of frogs are found in the world. Water frogs and tree frogs are the major group of frog varieties. Most of the water frogs spend their life in or around aquatic regions; meanwhile tree frogs live in moist environments. Most commonly found frogs are spring peepers, the leopard frogs, the edible frogs, bull frog and the green frogs. The largest living frog species is the goliath frog.

The goliath frog will grow to lengths of up to 33 cm and weigh of nearly 3 kg. If we generally explain the body features of a frog, we can say frogs have pupils that bulge out, smooth skin and long legs with webbed toes. They have a bicornuated tongue that helps them to capture its prey. Then, the tympanum on each side of the head transmits sound ...
... waves to the inner ear. To protect themselves from its enemies the frogs secret a special toxin substance on their skin. These toxins prevent predators from eating them. The toxins secreted by some frogs are even poisonous to human beings.

The lifecycle of a frog consists of three main stages. They are egg, larva and adult. A female frog lays eggs in a creek or shallow pond. The eggs of frogs are known as frogspawn. The frogspawn will hatch into tadpoles. The tadpole that looks like a fish will have gills, a mouth and a tail. In the tadpole stage, it will feed on floating weeds or grasses in the water. It will take weeks for the tadpole to develop into a froglet. After some weeks, the gills will be removed by the skin. By the fourth week, tadpoles will develop into a froglet. In this stage, the young one almost resembles an adult, but will have a vestigial tail. By falling of tail, the froglet will grow in an adult frog.

The process through which an egg turns into a fully grown adult is known as metamorphosis. It’s not only frogs, but also most of the amphibians undergo remarkable changes throughout their life cycle to become a fully grown adult. Most of the frogs are carnivores. They will feed on both insects and other small creatures. Their feeding habit is quite interesting. Most of the frogs wait for their prey to come within their circle. Once they locate their prey, thy attack it and capture it. Some frogs don’t wait for the prey to come in their area; they just go out and find their prey.

In the last few decades, the frog population is declining in a drastic manner. What are the threats faced by frogs? Some of the major factors that are affecting the frog population in a negative way are habitat destruction, deforestation, infectious diseases, pollution, pesticides, climate change and over harvesting.

Why should we save frogs? Tadpoles feed on algae and keep the waterways clean. Frogs feed on insects, including mosquitoes that can transfer fatal illness to human beings. Diverse array of animals and birds including fish, snakes and birds eat frogs. Thus, frogs play an important role in the food cycle. The reduction in the number frogs can disturb the intricate food chain and results in a negative impact on the ecosystem. When thinking about ecosystem and factors affecting it in a negative way, we cannot exclude frogs. Most of the information related to frogs was collected from various websites on the Internet connected with service from providers like Time Warner Internet.

As a freelancer, Ann is interested in writing about ecosystem and the negative factors influencing it. She collects information for most of her topic from her home computer powered by Time Warner Internet.