Toads often have puffy looking pockets called paratoid glands located behind the ear that squirt poison at potential predators. So, if you've ever hear a dog "scream" after picking up an American Toad, now you know what happened!

Although frogs have poisonous skin glands, these toxins do not usually protect them from predatory mammals, birds, and snakes. Edible anurans have to rely on more than just poison glands which tend to work too late (i.e. after the predator has it in his mouth!)

Some frogs have developed neat ways to fool predators by stripes that appear to split them in two! The stripe down the scenter confuses predators from above by breaking up the outlines of "frog" shape to look like something different. This way, the frog or toad can blend in easier to it's background

pretty sick!

How cute!

my, what bid ears you have

Frogs can hear using big round ears on the sides of their head called a tympanum. Tympanum means drum. The size and distance between the ears depends on the wavelength and frequency of a male frogs call. On some frogs, the ear is very hard to see!

Ever wonder how frogs that can get so LOUD manage not to hurt their own ears? Some frogs make so much noise that they can be heard for miles! How do they keep from blowing out their own eardrums?
Well, actually, frogs have special ears that are connected to their lungs. When they hear noises, not only does the eardrum vibrate, but the lung does too! Scientists think that this special pressure system is what keeps frogs from hurting themselves with their noisy calls!

Ten new species of amphibian discovered in Colombia. But, only five pictures

(where I got these pictures from it doesn't have ten new species of amphibians, it only has five)

I will list all the frogs that were discovered in Colombia-

1. Glass frog of the Nymphargus genus








2.Orange legged rain frog Pristimantis genus









3. Rain frog








4. Salamander Bolitoglossa taylori








5. A poisonious frog of the Dendrobatidae family from the Colostethus genus

There are still so many incredible species of frogs out there from which scientists could learn a great deal. The Gastric Brooding Frog (Rheobatrachus silus), for example, was only discovered in 1972. It was a very interesting frog as it would actually brood its young in its stomach. Scientists were particularly interested in this because during the brooding, the stomach did not produce hydrochloric acid - knowledge which could be very usefully applied to medicine if we could learn how it works. Unfortunately, these frogs have completely dissapeared and are now believed to be extinct, so we may never learn its secrets.
Click on its picture to read more about this weird frog.


Yep...that's a baby frog coming out of a tiny mama frogs' mouth.
This species of frog, called the Gastric Brooding Frog, incubates its' young inside it's tummy...then the frogs come hopping out of the mouth when they develop past the tadpole stage. Scientists were most intrigued by how this species manages to "Turn off" production of hydrochloric acid (the digestive juices) when brooding the froglets.
The Gastric Brooding Frog was found in Australia. Sadly, not long after their discovery they dissapeared and are now believed to be extinct.

Also- Yes! That is a thumb you see behind the frog, to show how tiny even the mama is.

Top ten signs you might be a frog.
# You get mad when you don't find a fly in your soup
# You buy out the supply of wart removal cream in your drugstore constantly
# French chefs are eyeing your legs and appear to be following you
# Bug lamps appear to you as a curse
# On applications, you list 'Pond' as your home address
# Kermit is your idol
# You get mad whenever Miss Piggy makes a pass at Kermit
# Have seen the movie 'The Fly' at least ten times
# You live in fear that someday you will wind up in a child's aquarium
# France is the evil empire to you






(Please don't become him!)

















Our wonderful froggie friends are disappearing :(

All is not well on the environmental front!
About 5 years ago, the environment was one of the more important issues in the media. Everywhere you turned: TV, the radio, the papers- the disappearance of rain forests in the Amazon and Brazil were one of the hottest topics around. The public attention actually helped, for a while - the rate at which acres of forest were disappearing slowed. But soon, interest in the media cooled off and now we hardly ever hear about this problem anymore. The worst part of it is, after the media craze died down, the problem has gotten EVEN WORSE than it was before, tropical forests disappearing at approximately one per cent every year!
An Amazon Study Released on January 26, 1998 shows that Brazil's Amazon rain forest continues to be ravaged at an alarming rate, according to a National Space Research Institute study. Satellite images showed some 22,600 square miles of rain forest were slashed, burned and cleared between 1995 and 1997!
At the same time, new studies have shown that America's National Parks a increasingly showing effects of Global Warming. If we don't start taking action, the consequences could be devastating!
Meanwhile, things are looking grim on the political front as well. In Rio, the second Earth Summit was held to evaluate the progress on where the world stands from promises made at the last summit 5 years ago in 1992. The International community pretty much failed on ALL counts...leaving many with a feeling that the whole thing was pretty much a waste of time.

Because they are so sensitive to environmental changes, Frogs represent to humans a sort of ecological "Canary in a Coalmine." The rapid disappearance of many species of frogs is a sure sign that something is going very very wrong on our planet.

Some Threatened Species

Every day new species of frogs disappear from our planet forever. Meet some of the interesting fellows whose plight has been noted.

http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/save/endangered.html

Amphibian Threats

Read about some of the causes leading to the disappearance of these frogs here.

http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/save/threats.html

(from http://allaboutfrogs.org)


Don't let our frog's disappear