With Spring coming, I start to get antsy. We have had some warm days and nights lately (in February) and the other afternoon I heard tree frogs calling. It won't be long before the pond and creek bottoms are blackened by little tadpoles. There is no telling how many thousand of them that I killed . . . uh caught as a kid, put in a jar or aquarium and watched for hours. I meant well but the mortality rate was high. Of course, it is in nature, too.
Each male and female frog may have many hundreds eggs. In order for the frog population to remain stable, only two need survive and in most cases that is what happens. Otherwise, we would be knee-deep in frogs.
Did you ever wonder what happens during the Springs that don't get enough rain for the frogs to successfully breed? Here in east Texas, that doesn't happen often but when it does, there is an interesting development (no pun intended).
