Common Toads and a Green Frog

green frog

This is the frog lake, where the green frog lives, but this day of spring there were toads around the lake and on the gravel road. A single green frog came out, which is very early for a green frog. It looked like it was very much interested in the toads, maybe the frog thought it was a toad, but there was no interest from the toads. They were only interested in their own business.
  

toads and a green frog.

The common toad emerges from hibernation in spring and there is a mass migration towards the breeding ponds. Adults use the same pond year after year and over 80% of males marked as juveniles have been found to return to the pond where they were spawned. The males arrive first and remain in the location for several weeks while the females only stay long enough to mate and spawn. The males mount on the females' backs, grasping them with their fore limbs in a grip that is known as amplexus. The males are very enthusiastic, will try to grasp fish or inanimate objects and often mount on the backs of other males. Sometimes several toads form a heap, each male trying to grasp the female at the base. It is a stressful period and mortality is high among breeding toads A successful male stays in amplexus for several days and, as the female lays a long, double string of small black eggs, he fertilises them with his sperm. As the pair wander piggyback around the shallow edges of the pond, the gelatinous egg strings, which may be 3 to 4.5 metres (10 to 15 ft) in length, get tangled in plant stalks. They absorb water and swell in size, and small tadpoles hatch out of the eggs after a fortnight to three weeks.
The common toad matures at age three to seven and may live for ten years.






photo Addit 24 March 2012: grethe bachmann