The Life of a Frog
In the springtime, we can find in almost any still pond what looks like masses of white or grey jelly floating in the water. If we look at it more closely, we will find it is made up of hundreds of little soft balls of jelly that we can see through, each one with a black spot in the middle. These are frog’s eggs: and it is in this form that a frog begins its life.
In about a fortnight, these eggs are hatched, and out of each egg came a tiny little black creature like a fish in shape. These start feeding very greedily and soon become large. They look like round blackheads with tails fastened to them. These funny-looking creatures are called tadpoles. When we watch them, they are always swimming about in the water with their tails; and they are busily feeding on what they can find.
These tadpoles grow bigger, and then we notice one day that they have grown hind legs. Later, about three months after the eggs are hatched, front legs appear. The next change we notice is that these tadpoles have lost their tails. And soon after that, they come out of the water and hop about on the bank-tiny, but perfectly shaped, baby frogs.
So the first part of the frog’s life is spent in the water, like a fish. But from the time it comes out of the water as a baby frog, until the winter comes, it spends most of its time on land, growing bigger all the time. In the winter, the frogs crawl into holes to get away from the cold, and they sleep until the spring comes round again.
Then they come out, full-grown frogs, and begin pairing and laying their eggs in the water. They now live equally in the water and on land, and animals that do this are called amphibians which means “living in both”.
In France, certain kinds of frogs are eaten as food, and frogs are also dissected to teach biology students.
