Frog on a Raft

Frog on a raft

I was out walking in the rainforest and came up to a shallow pond.  As I looked carefully in the pond, I saw thousands of cute little tadpoles swimming around.  As I walked around the pond, I saw the coolest thing.  It looked like a white foam raft about the size of the palm of my hand and sitting pretty on top of the raft was a very small, but adorable frog.  Take a look at the photo.  The frogs make this foam raft by kicking their feet in the water as they release a liquid.  The mother (female) frog lays her eggs into the middle of the raft.

The floating raft is a good adaptation to protect the eggs from hungry predators, prevents them from dehydrating, and protects them from parasites and bacteria.  It’s convenient that the eggs hatch into tadpoles right in the water where the tadpoles swim.  After the tadpoles hatch, the foam disintegrates (it is biodegradable).  After a few weeks, the tadpoles start growing legs and lose their tails and become adult frogs and they look like the frog in the photo perching on top of the foam.

- Fran Zakutansky