Tadpole Progress and the Race Against Time

Gray Treefrog Tadpole, Homer Lake Wetland, June 17, 2021

Let me just get this out of the way and say, "Wow! I don't recall ever coming across such beautiful tadpoles before!" This is an eastern gray treefrog tadpole (Hyla versicolor). The only way to know that it's an eastern gray tree frog and not a Cope's gray treefrog is by the calls that the frogs make (or by chromosomal differences, which I'm not equipped to look at!)  I've only ever heard the eastern gray treefrogs at the wetland. 

This guy, and others I saw yesterday were similarly sized, was about 38mm (about an inch and a half) in length. That's not bad considering that the first I heard gray treefrogs calling near the wetland this year was April 9th, and those were from the trees surrounding the wetland. The first I noted hearing the eastern gray treefrogs calling from the water's edge was on April 30th.  Gray treefrog eggs are said to be from 4mm to 8mm in diameter, so 38mm in length is an appreciable gain.

That said, the water levels are going down noticeably at the wetland. These hot days are taking their toll. The photo below was taken the morning of June 8th and shows a path I have consistently taken during my visits through the wetland. In the photo, the only standing water visible is in the deep footprints I've left in the soft mud when I pass through, but up until early June this whole area was covered in several inches of water.

As you can see in the photo above, beautiful though it is, the gray treefrog tadpole is still showing no signs of growing legs, the first outward sign of its progressing toward frogdom. Likewise, in the leopard frog tadpoles I have observed so far, though larger than the gray treefrog tadpoles (but not as pretty!) I have not yet seen any signs of legs developing. Last year the wetland was dry by mid-August. I do not know how its status in mid-June compares with this year, but it could be possible this year is or will be hotter and drier and it may dry up sooner, so we will see.

If you read the post a couple of weeks ago entitled Spring Peepers: Next Generation, you know that the spring peeper tadpoles have been exiting the pond in large numbers as tiny froglets, about half an inch in length. The "toadpoles" (see post of April 15) are also long gone, emerging as very tiny toadlets a fraction of what their adult size will be. The gray treefrog and leopard frog tadpoles, however, grow much larger before transforming into frogs. And as noted before, green frog and bullfrog tadpoles take multiple seasons to grow into maturity, so any eggs laid in the wetland by these species will almost certainly not win the race against time.

a path through the wetland now going dry, June 8, 2021


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