Monday, July 20, 2009

Our Summer Science Projects: Tadpoles, Tree Frogs and a Mud Turtle

Our science projects have expanded this summer. We started out with a tadpole rescue, you can read more here. My husband rescued them from a ditch with evaporating water. It has been a great learning experience and summer project! It's been fun to watch them grow and check them every morning to see who has grown one set of legs, then two sets and then lungs. So far, they have all grown into itty bitty toads, about the size of a large house fly. We've let them go when their lungs have developed and their tails are gone.

On Saturday morning, much to our excitement, we realized 2 of our tadpoles are tree frogs!!! We are very excited here and considering keeping them a while longer. I'm doing some research. We're going to need another aquarium! Here's what I've found so far: frogs, raising tadpoles, mud turtle care & mud turtles as pets. Surprisingly, tree frogs and mud turtles are both listed as recommended pets. Tree frogs are nocturnal and make a loud "chirping" noise at night. Ours haven't done so yet. I wonder when they develop that ability?

So where does the mud turtle come in? We have a mud turtle that is staying with us. We will release him back to nature shortly. One of the issues is the mud turtle eats tadpoles! So we have to keep them separated.

In regards to obtaining another aquarium, I posted on Freecycle initially, then looked on Craig's List. I didn't see anything. We ended up going to Petsmart and picking up one of these lightweight aquariums. We already have one. They are great for catching critters and studying them. A habitat can be made in these aquariums for a land critter or water critter. They have a top, so creatures can not escape, especially in the house! The aquariums are versatile and served our purpose. We have 2 of them now in the large size.

I highly recommend raising tadpoles as a future summer project for any of you considering it!

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