I got this really great picture of our frog spawn the other day and I just had to share it with all of you! You can see that the eggs have developed quite significantly since the first time I shared photos of when we collected them. Their gills, eyes and yolk sacs are completely visible and once in a while you can even see them wiggle frantically inside of the eggs :)
Sorry that this picture is a little grainy but I just had to blow it up larger so that you could get a good look at how they are developing. You can really see the yolk sac, his very large looking belly. The frog spawn eat the jelly substance that their eggs are made of and the nutrition from their yolk sacs until they hatch, at which time they will start to eat algae and plant matter. It's hard to believe that they started as one single yolk that split into 2 then into 4, then into 8 and so on until it actually looks like a raspberry! Eventually it starts to look more like a tadpole like the above photo :) If you want to see some really AMAZING photos of frog spawn from the time it was laid, through the cell division I just mentioned to hatching as tadpole then you have to go to THIS site!
Our frog spawn should be ready to hatch any day now so I'll share more photos with you then :)
This afternoon my three little nature explorers and I wandered off to the pond at the end of our property in search of frog eggs. The frogs have been croaking for a couple of weeks now and spring is prime egg laying time :)
After a brief search along the banks of the pond we spotted an egg sack or frog spawn (fertilized eggs) within reach! During the breeding period a single frog can lay thousands of eggs. One frog spawn alone can contain hundreds and hundreds of eggs. The freshly laid eggs have many predators. A few of them are newts, fish, snakes, aquatic insects and birds.
Careful, don't fall in!
Once K had safely retrieved the frog spawn from the water everyone crowded around to get a better look.
Here is a close up of a portion of the frog spawn we collected which is a gelatinous liquid that surrounds and protects the delicate eggs. The eggs seem to float inside the gel. Did you know that roughly only 1 in 5 eggs matures into a frog? No wonder they need to lay so many eggs!
Everyone had to have one more feel before we placed the frog spawn safely in the bucket for transport home. We're going to hatch them like we did last year :) We had great success so hopefully this year we will have the same luck.
The following link is to an interesting 2 minute video of frogs mating in a backyard pond. It has some neat underwater shots and close ups of the frogs and frog spawn. You can view it at: http://www.vimeo.com/745654
Make sure you turn up your speakers and watch it on full screen for the best view. Another neat site is this one which helps you identify different frog eggs by telling you the different breeding times, egg sizes, color, hatch time and more!
