Baby Frogs on the Move — Dispersal in Frogs and Why You Should Care
My husband almost stepped on the little guy. It was a frog hopping across a gravel road in the woods.
This frog was tiny.
This frog looked like it had been a tadpole up to five minutes ago. So, why was the frog cheerfully hopping through the woods.
Frog Dispersal
We were on my mother-in-law’s land, and they have a large pond. It’s artificial, and is home to ridiculous numbers of dragonflies (thank you for eating the mosquitoes) and, from the sound, green frogs (a smaller relative of the bullfrog).
They’re pretty easy to identify. You probably won’t see one, but their call sounds just like somebody plucking a single string on a guitar or a banjo.
Our itty bitty froglet was almost certainly a newly-metamorphosed green frog that had spent their tadpole time in said pond.
So, why was such a young frog hopping across land?
The answer is a reproductive strategy known as dispersal. It’s practiced by a number of frog species. As soon as they are done metamorphosing, the young frogs are instinctually driven to leave their birth pond and find another pond. Meanwhile, frogs from a different pond…you get the picture.