Frog Information (for summer game class)

• From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frogs):
• Frogs lay their eggs in water
• Young frogs have gills and are called tadpoles
• Adult frogs are carnivorous
• Frogs live all over the world (except deserts and the high arctic)
• There are more than 5000 species of frogs
• Oxygen can pass through frogs' skin, this is how they breathe
• Frogs must remain moist to breathe properly
• Frogs are highly susceptible to poison because of how they breathe
• Frogs generally only have ten free vertebrae (we have 33!)
• Frogs have three eyelids
• Most frogs have teeth (some on the roof of their mouth!)
• Frogs use their eyeballs to swallow
• Frogs that live in water have webbed toes (generally depending on the percentage of the time the species is aquatic), tree frogs have have toes that help them grip surfaces (this doesn't work when wet), some ground frogs have toe extenstions that help them to burrow
• Tree frogs' hips let them both walk and hop, and some tree frogs have webbing in their toes to let them glide like flying squirrels
• Ground frogs have the most muscular hind legs
• Frogs are nocturnal to help them retain water
• Frogs most commonly defend themselves by camoflaging
• Some frogs can change colour (usually restricted to a few shades)
• Some frogs change colour between night and day
• Most frogs have mild toxins that make them taste icky to potential predators
• All toads have a large poison gland on the top of their head
• Some frogs get their poison from the food they eat (ants, arthropods)
• Poisonous frogs advertise this with bright colours
• Some frogs mimic poison frogs, even if they aren't toxic
• Some frogs' eggs detect vibrations (like from snakes) and hatch early to avoid being eaten
• Some frogs' eggs are poisonous
• Aquatic eggs generally hatch in a weeks' time
• Some species spend their larval stage in their mother
• Tadpoles are usually herbivores, but some will eat other tadpoles, insects, and small fish
• Some tadpoles stay in that form over winter
• When tadpoles turn into frogs, the eyes shift from sideways to forwards as they move from "prey" to "predator"
• Some frogs migrate to the pond they were hatched in to mate
• Each frog call is unique to the species
• Up to 20% of amphibians care for their young in some way
• Some frogs "eat" their tadpoles to protect them (and surpress their stomach acid at the same time!), while some tadpoles develop in their parents vocal sacs
• Some frogs hibernate during dry periods
• More thanone third of frogs are threatening to become extinct, and 120 are suspected to be extinct since 1980
• Frogs are very threatened by habitat loss, pollution, climate change, and introduction of non-indigenous predators
• Many scientists believe that frogs are a good indicator of the health of an ecosystem
• A 2006 Canadian study proposed frogs are very threatened by heavy traffic
• San Diego Zoo (http://sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-frog_toad.html)
• Frogs don't have necks
• Some frogs will even eat small rodents
• In many species, the male cares for the eggs, in some species, both parents do
• The largest frog is 30 cm long, the smallest is 1 cm
• The largest frog can weigh up to 6.6 lbs
• Frogs live from 1 - 30 years
• Frogs lay 2 - >50000 eggs depending on the species
• One frog can hop 4.2 metres in a single jump