Our Tadpoles Have Legs Now!

When we woke up this morning, we discovered that three of the tadpoles we're raising now have hind legs! Here's a picture of two of them.

Tadpoles, which hatch from frog eggs, grow their hind legs first. Next their front legs pop out. Then gradually they reabsorb their tail, which shrinks and finally disappears. They begin breathing with lungs (as well as continuing to breath through their skin) around the time their tails have almost disappeared.

I've posted additional photos (including a close-up of one of our tadpoles brand-new legs!) and information about tadpoles and frogs on Tadpoles To Frogs.

Our Tadpoles Are Growing!

Our tadpoles are really growing and changing shape!

(The photo above is enlarged.)

You can clearly see eyes on our tadpoles now. And their shape has changed in the past few days. Now their bodies are rounder and their tails are skinnier. Even though the tadpoles have lots of room to swim, they spend most of their time with their faces touching the sides of the containers and their tails facing the center of the bowl.

Our Frog Eggs Are Hatching Into Tadpoles!

Two days ago, we brought home some frog eggs from our homeschool group co-op. When we looked into the container of pond water and frog eggs today, we could see some very tiny tadpoles swimming around! The larger ones are about four millimeters long.

Here's one, but this is greatly enlarged:



When I took a photo of the tadpoles and enlarged it on my computer, I could see many more tiny creatures swimming around in the water. These "bugs" just look like little black flecks to the naked eye, but resemble very tiny tadpoles when the image is enlarged. I wish I could tell you exactly what they are, but I'm not sure. They may be the very tiniest of mosquito larva. Mosquito larva tend to swim on the surface of the water, diving down into the water to escape danger, and then kind of wiggling back up in a jerky type manner. The mosquito larva I have seen before have long skinny bodies and were larger than these "bugs." Yet there are 4 different stages of mosquito larva. If you'd like to know more about mosquito larva, here is a good site about mosquitos.

You can see some of these very tiny creatures in this image below, which by the way is blown up exactly the same amount as the image above. (They are actually the same photo, just cropped in different places.)



I'll keep you updated with more photos as the tadpoles continue to grow and change into frogs! (Here's my next blog on our tadpoles! Our Tadpoles Are Really Growing!)

P.S. Watching the frog life cycle is part of the Real Science 4 Kids curriculum we are using this year.

Meerkats!

My son and I had lots of fun researching meerkats a few weeks ago! After learning about them from a variety of books and website articles, we went to our local zoo and he took tons of pictures of the meerkats there. He wrote a report, and I made a website about the adorable little cat-like animals called meerkats!



Meerkats lead very social lives, working together and often putting the needs of the group over their own. For example, did you know that meerkats take turns babysitting their mob's youth in order to allow the new mother time to go out and hunt for food? If she doesn't eat, she won't be able to nurse her babies. Yet another meerkat is giving up a lot when he or she agrees to babysit, as they can lose up to 2% of their weight in a day of babysitting! The babysitter doesn't get much chance to eat that day! That's some dedication and commitment to the good of the whole mob, don't you think?! Wow! How many humans agree to fast for a full day, in order to help out the others in their community?

If you'd like to read more about these adorable animals in the mongoose family, or see some more of the photos we took, you can do so by visiting Meerkats!