Over the last couple weeks we have had a few friend, a few hundred friends. Joe and Owen first discovered these strange creatures swimming around in the edge of our pond out back and asked what they were. Both Melissa and I were amazed as there were hundreds, if not thousands, of tadpoles in our little pond.
Melissa then thought it would be fun to bring a few up so we could watch them grow. And we are glad we did. This was an very interesting experience as I don’t remember watching all the different stages – and the kids got to see it all. Feeding the little guys frozen lettuce and letting them swim in collected rain water … all our little ones grew up big and strong.
During our research project we found:
– Tadpoles are very social animals. In groups of 5 or less they won’t eat … add twenty and they all swim around excited and chow down on whats available.
– Found the back legs grew before the front legs
– Those outside matured faster than those inside … by a significant amount
– Once they grew their legs, they were out of the water in hours … went from gills to lungs incredibly quickly
– Kids pick up everything, even if they appear not to be listening.
Thanks to Tess for loaning us their new home. We should note that we have released many of the little frogs back to the pond … caring for Tadpoles is easy. Dozens of frogs is another story.
More picture at: Polliwog Pals Gallery
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We did this at preschool in Revelstoke one year. It certainly was interesting! I know your (our) boys would really enjoy this experience.