Frogs

A year ago the papers were publishing alarming stories about the plight of the world’s frog populations, reporting that many species were under threat and not producing enough healthy young to guarantee their long term viability. That may still be the case, but it is great to report that here at Cabragh Wetlands our frogs seem to be in very robust and noisy good health.



Our artist-in-residence, Eamonn Brennan, has produced more wonderful pictures of frogs doing what comes naturally in late March as the weather warms up and spring gets underway. The females are laying huge quantities of eggs, and the males are busy fertilizing them at extraordinary rates – up to 4,000 each. Areas of the wetlands are alive with small bodies piled on top of each other, with pools of frogspawn spreading around. The air is filled with a cacophony of croaking as the males try to find a female partner.



This of course is one the best known signs of spring, and most of us will remember as children collecting frogspawn in a jam jar and studying the life-cycle of the frog by watching the eggs turn into wriggly tadpoles. It can almost be seen as one of those childhood rites of passage, an event which takes us out of the narrow cocoon of the family and introduces us to the wonder, beauty and variety of the natural world. How many of you remember that the frog begins as a fish-like creature, breathing through gills in its tadpole stage, before growing a tail and legs? In an amazing transformation it then abandons its gills by growing lungs and breathing like a land-based animal before emerging tailless as a fully mature frog.



Here at Cabragh Wetlands we are in a great position to give children the chance to study this sort of process at first hand, rather than from an indoor textbook lesson, computer screen or newspaper article. Children will love learning out in the middle of nature. If you can, get in touch and arrange a visit for your school or group. We can be contacted on 050443879 (mornings) or via e-mail at cabraghwetlands@eircom.net. Give the kids a chance to experience those tadpoles and frogs in their natural environment.