Megan Nisbet: Choice Topic #1--Frogs

This is a sort of follow up to my previous post about Annie Dillard when she talked about the frog. I stated that though frogs are my favorite animal, I do not actually know much about them, except that they eat insects with their long tounges. Because of this, I decided to research them so I could find out more about these cute amphibians. I even used to have a frog as a pet, but it was a very low maintanence one because it simply lived in all water, and ate little pellets that resembled fish food. In reality, it was more like a fish than a frog, since I didn't have to feed it live crickets or beetles. A place called allaboutfrogs.org gave me some interesting facts and information about frogs and taught me a lot. I found that frogs can range from 1cm (found in Brazil), to a whopping 30cm (found in West Africa). To put the size of these frogs into perspective, the smallest isn't even as big as a quarter, and the largest is the size of a torso of a baby deer! The actual lifespan of a frog in the wild isn't known because it is often hard to find frogs when they are just hatched, and stay with them until they are full grown. However, the best estimate of lifespan is somewhere between 4 and 15 years in captivity, but there are some species that have lived in captivity for up to 40! Frogs have very odd eating habits, and actually have a row of top teeth, contrary to popular belief. These top teeth aren't used to actually chew the food they eat, but are used to hold their prey still before they swallow it whole. They swallow their prey by closing their eyes and making them go down into their head, which applys pressure to the food in their mouth, and pushes it down it's throat whole. Yum yum! Frogs also have interesting ways to drink and breathe. Not only do they breathe through their lungs, but they also use their skin to breathe, and take in the oxygen from the water that they are in. In fact, if a frog doesn't or is unable to keep himself wet enough, he can actually suffocate! The water they absorb through their skin is also the way that they drink, as they do not drink through their mouths like we do. From all this reading, I realized even more just how cool frogs are. I'm planning on getting a little more high maintanence one this summer as a pet, but I'm not going to go so far as getting one that will only eat live crickets. I can probably deal with one that eats frozen bloodworms, but that's my limit!