(I hope you can make out three frogs in the above photo. The far one is poking it’s bum out a bit)
Earlier this evening I was told to change channels and watch a tv segment on how to keep captive Aussie Greentree frogs; and it taught me two new facts:
1. That only the male frogs croak
2. That frogs can live up to 20 years.
Now, maybe if I’d stopped and really thought hard about it, I may have remembered the croaking part. But hearing it again, I put two and two together and realised that all my frogs must be female.
We’ve been walking past them for forever, and never a peep was heard. And because they were large and so assertive, I thought most of the five must be he-frogs. I’m delighted to be corrected, and now it’s like they’re a gang of girlfriends living in side-by-side apartments.
Actually there was a third fact: they only need feeding a couple of times a week. Our frogs are wild and come and go as they please. But in the height of summer we were catching big juicy moths for them most nights of the week. No wonder they were getting so plump.


6 comments
Comments feed for this article
July, 23 2008 at 1:43 am
Moon
Surely after 20 years, both male and female ‘croak’ … ?
July, 23 2008 at 3:17 am
Jay
And no wonder they are still hanging around! LOL!
They are sweet! Even if they don’t say a word.
July, 23 2008 at 3:49 am
Bettythesheep
That’s mad that only the male frogs croak! It’s sort of the opposite to what you would expect considering that females generally like to talk.
July, 23 2008 at 2:49 pm
Don't Bug Me!
Same is true for my toads – only the males sing. I have two females – this ensures that I don’t keep getting tadpoles and that Mr. DBM and I can sleep at night.
July, 23 2008 at 5:37 pm
coastalaussie
Great joke, Moon! Ha ha ha. Yes, they’ll both ‘croak’ after twenty years. It’ll be their ’swansong’ , or ‘frogsong’ in this case.
Exactly Betty, I thought so too. But apparantly the better the croak, the more attractive the he-frogs. Does this mean there is a genetic reason for bragging?
Bugs, oh wise move. From the sound of the croaking, we must have had frog orgy going on, when we first put up our pool – there’ll certain be no endangered frogs on our property after the subsequent population explosion – thankfully though, we’ve since drained and cleaned it, and bought a nifty frog-proof cover.
July, 25 2008 at 2:43 am
Moon
Well, best they ‘hop’ to it then…………….