“How to help birds in winter” - People can help birds by making feeders. It's warm there and there's a lot of food. When strengthening the feeder, you must not break off branches or damage tree trunks. There should be food in the feeder at all times. Some birds fly south, some remain with us Perm region spend the winter. The bear sleeps five months a year, or even more.
“Inanimate nature in winter” - Why do we love winter? Why does the sun shine in winter and not warm? Black ice. Blizzard. Icicles. Check yourself. 1. How much winter months. Snow decorated the branches of the spruce. Thaw. Frost. Inanimate nature in winter. Snowfall. Winter is called “nature’s dream.” Why do you think? 1. Strong wind with snow -…. 2. An increase in temperature in winter to 0 degrees or a little higher for a while - ... 3. The water that appears during the thaw freezes and forms on the roads - ... 4. Fluffy snow fringe that beautifully everything around - ...
“In the forest in winter” - But as soon as a flock of tits swoops in, the forest comes to life. Wintering birds. Like white birch trees standing in lace. The decoration of our winter landscape is bullfinches. In autumn, the bear eats intensively and puts on fat. Here and there the wintered berries on the rowan trees are turning red in the forest. Beautiful and sad winter forest. The hare's paws are wide and fluffy.
“Animal life in winter” - How do birds winter? The supplies in the burrows are also running out. Snow. Winter inanimate nature. . February. Life continues in winter. Animal nutrition in winter. Sun for summer - winter for frost. December paves, December nails, December nails. Squirrels and mice are supplies from under the snow. The last, oldest month of winter. The day gets shorter and shorter.
“Trees and shrubs in winter” - Grow in the forest: L I P A. Grow in the forest: D U B. Grow in the forest: ASPEN. Foliage is dropped by: 1. Oak, maple, birch, linden. 2. Spruce, pine. Forest. Practical work. Graphic dictation. What are the leaves of spruce, pine, and larch called? 1. Needles 2. Needles. Learning to distinguish between trees and shrubs in winter. Growing in the forest: CURRANT.
“Garshin Toad and Rose” - V. How did events develop further? Flower life beauty love consolation. Who started visiting the flower garden often? What did the rose understand? Vocabulary work. Who did the boy become friends with? Why did the writer combine the stories of the rose and the boy? What desire stirred in the toad’s heart? I. Where did the rose bloom? Who saved the rose from a terrible death?
Of the toads, the two most common types are: the gray or common toad, with a dark brown back, and the green toad - the back is light gray with large green spots.
The tadpoles hatched from eggs lead a completely fish-like lifestyle, breathe through gills, and feed on algae.
Adult frogs and toads eat animal foods. In search of food, they go quite far from the water, sometimes 1.5-2 km, but they return only to their native body of water to spawn. By what signs do they find Right way, still remains a mystery. Scientists tried to transfer the toads to someone else's pond, but the proximity of water did not tempt them and they stubbornly went in search of their own pond. There were even cases when a pond was covered with earth for some reason, and still in the spring frogs and toads gathered near it, and one could see them sitting on the ground in complete confusion, like people who found ashes on the site of their home .
Although frogs live on land, sharp-faced frogs and green toads are better adapted to dry air and high temperature, live even in steppes and semi-deserts, yet the characteristics of their body indicate a close connection with water.
The frog has lungs, but they are poorly developed, and it breathes not so much with its lungs as with the entire surface of its body. For some time, a frog can live without lungs at all. She breathes through her skin both in air and in water. Experts checked how long a frog could sit in the water without surfacing: it turned out that the toad lasted about 8 days, and the grass frog about a month.
In order for the skin to transmit oxygen well, it must be thin and always moist. This is why frogs living on land prefer damp habitats. During the day they hide from the heat under leaves and grass, and go hunting at dusk or at night. Water easily evaporates through the thin skin, cooling the surface of the body, so the frog always seems cold. Indeed, her body temperature is always several degrees lower than the ambient temperature. Not only air, but also water penetrates through the skin. The frog does not drink water with its mouth. To get drunk, it is enough for her to swim in the dew or press her belly to the wet earth.
Like all cold-blooded animals, the frog is characterized by reduced energy metabolism. Not only the lungs are poorly developed, but also the heart. Food is digested very slowly. A beetle that gets into the stomach of a frog remains alive for more than an hour. Since frogs do not have their own internal “stove,” their activity is very dependent on air temperature. At temperatures below 10°C, they barely move at all. Therefore, you can imagine how difficult it is for frogs in winter, because they die at a temperature of -1°C.
Grass frogs overwinter in bodies of water that do not freeze to the bottom, burrowing into the bottom silt. All processes at this time are slowed down, the blood barely flows, but, nevertheless, growth does not stop and the maturation of the sexual “elements continues in order to be ready for spring. The sharp-faced frog winters on land, huddled under snags, stones, leaves, in mouse and mole holes.Toads also winter on land, often climbing into the basements of houses for the winter. Hibernation lasts from 150 to 200 days depending on the duration of the cold period. in winter most of frogs and toads die, by spring only 2-5% remain.
And yet, despite the reduced energy supply, frogs are excellent hunters. Their reaction to the appearance of prey is exceptionally fast and accurate. A special role in this is played by the eyes, which are called thinking eyes. And for good reason: the frog reacts only to moving objects. Stationary food does not make her want to hunt, and she may starve to death surrounded by stationary insects.
It is used to destroy pests on sugar cane plantations and is specially imported to those areas where this crop is widespread, for example to the Hawaiian Islands, to the island New Guinea. In some cases, the sugarcane harvest depends solely on the activity of the aga toad. Our toads are inferior to them both in size and in gluttony, but nevertheless their usefulness for the garden is so high that in some European countries they turned into market good, and if desired, the gardener can buy himself a toad at the market.
Frogs eat insects, but they themselves are eaten without mercy by larger animals. For example, frog and toad eggs and tadpoles in large quantities They destroy fish and snakes, and even a large lake frog living in the water will not refuse to grab a tadpole swimming by. On land, frogs also have many enemies. They are eaten by birds and almost all mammals, including minks, hedgehogs, otters, foxes, and badgers. Frogs are hunted by 92 species of birds, and toads by 18. Toads have some protection - skin poison glands, but this is not a barrier to owls, rooks, raccoons, and badgers. Frogs constitute the main food of snakes and vipers, not to mention the birds living near the water - herons, gulls, cranes.
When there are few rodents, foxes and wolves begin to hunt frogs. Only their high fertility saves frogs and toads from complete destruction. One female lays, depending on the species, from 2 to 4 thousand eggs. At the beginning of summer, when young frogs and toads come to land, the number of amphibians increases tens of times, but in the spring of next year, as noted, only 2-5% of all this abundance remains. In fact, most frogs and toads die after they, having reached sexual maturity, fulfill their main duty to nature - lay eggs. In captivity, where nothing threatens, a frog can live 18 years, a toad - 35 years.
And yet the most main enemy frogs and toads - man. No amount of fertility can save you from it. Drainage of swamps, plowing of floodplain lands and, finally, the use of pesticides lead to the rapid and complete disappearance of many species of amphibians. In Switzerland and Germany, almost all species of amphibians are on the verge of extinction and are under protection: it is forbidden to kill, catch, sell, or collect them. Fortunately, we haven’t run out of frogs yet and are briskly jumping around our beds. They don't need any special measures attraction, as for birds. But still, they will feel more comfortable in your garden, and therefore hunt more actively, if the plants in the beds are planted so close that their leaves form a continuous canopy above the ground, under which reigns the damp, cool twilight, so loved by frogs and toads.
If you come up with the now fashionable idea of making an artificial pond on your site, do not forget about frogs when determining its size and populating it with vegetation. Regardless of the area of your pond, it is recommended to make its bottom according to certain rules. On one side, the bottom should have several ledges, smoothly descending to the deepest part of the pond. The opposite wall is made vertical. Maximum depth The pond should be at least 90-100 cm deep so that in this place the water does not freeze to the bottom and some species of frogs can overwinter there. The ledges and bottom are made strictly horizontal so that dead plant debris is evenly distributed over their surface and gradually rots without the formation of toxic gases that can poison the inhabitants of the pond. The uppermost, i.e. the shallowest ledge, is planted with marsh vegetation; this is a favorite place to stay pond frogs living in water. Shrubs and tall grasses are placed on the opposite bank of the pond so that frogs living on land can take refuge there during the heat of the day. You can even make artificial shelters on the shore for their overwintering by placing small piles of stones and brushwood.
If you can accomplish all this, then your soul will be at peace: you have done everything possible for your frogs. Now it's up to them
N.M. Zhirmunskaya
Stories about nature. Episode 3. Toads - life in water
Series of messages "Useful inhabitants of the garden. N.M. Zhirmunskaya
2 Useful inhabitants of the garden. Birds in the garden. N.M. Zhirmunskaya
3 Useful inhabitants of the garden. Jerzy. N.M. Zhirmunskaya
4 Useful inhabitants of the garden. Shrew - do not confuse it with a mouse! N.M. Zhirmunskaya
5 The enemies of our enemies are our friends N.M. Zhirmunskaya
6 Useful inhabitants of the garden. Ants are a hardworking people. N.M. Zhirmunskaya
7 Useful inhabitants of the garden. Frogs and toads. N.M. Zhirmunskaya
How loudly the frogs croak in the spring! For the first time out of town, my younger son I could stand by the pond for hours, look out for frogs and listen to their mating serenades. Of course, the next time he arrived, he immediately asked me to go to the pond, and imagine my son’s surprise when he realized that the frogs could not be seen or heard. Where are the frogs? Are they frozen? Did they fall asleep? They galloped off to warmer climes? Of course, I could not help but answer this question in detail to the child, and so I first had to figure it out myself.
Frog hibernation
There are many frogs in the world, differing in color, size, shape, and habitat, however, they are all united by certain external signs.
Frogs have an extraordinary ability to adapt to their environment; they tolerate both frost and heat well, although they cannot specifically regulate their body temperature. All frogs living in countries with cold climates, when cold weather sets in, find a warm, cozy place for themselves, hide there and hibernate. However, the wintering habits of frogs vary depending on their species and habitat.
Different types of wintering
- Land frogs spend winters in wooded areas, they burrow into the ground, under leaves, under branches or moss, choosing, at the same time, places where the air temperature is higher than throughout the forest.
- When cold weather sets in, aquatic frogs sink to the bottom of the reservoir, bury themselves in warm silt and spend the entire winter there. The water becomes cold, lowers the temperature of the frog’s body, and it falls into suspended animation. Even in severe frosts, reservoirs do not freeze to the very bottom, so nothing threatens the frog.
What about oxygen?
How do frogs breathe underwater? In addition to the lungs, frogs respiratory organ is also the skin. Water contains oxygen, which is supplied to animals through the skin; it is enough for frogs in winter. In addition, in winter they need very little oxygen because they require little food. Therefore, frogs can remain underwater almost without inhaling air.
When does the frog wake up
How long the frog spends hibernating depends on the duration of the cold weather. On average, it is approximately 160 days, from 4 months in the south to 8 in the north.
As soon as warm days arrive and the water warms up a little, the frog also warms up, “comes to life”, its heart begins to beat faster, it swims to the surface, begins to breathe with its lungs and pleases us with its cheerful croaking, announcing the arrival of spring.
While working in the garden, you can often stumble upon frogs unexpectedly jumping out of the green grass or important and clumsy toads barely crawling out. Many people are disgusted by these animals. Meanwhile, it should be remembered that there are benefits from frogs. They are tireless hunters of all kinds of small pests, bringing invaluable benefits.
The information in the article will allow you to take a closer look at the life activity of these animals, and perhaps many will even develop some sympathy for these interesting creatures.
Before we find out what a frog eats, let’s present its description.
General information about toads and frogs: differences
Toads and frogs are tailless amphibians that live in water and on land. Even when leaving the water, these animals are very dependent on it. In addition to pulmonary respiration, they also have active skin respiration, which allows amphibians to stay under water for a longer time. But dry air and prolonged exposure to the sun have a detrimental effect on them.
What does a frog eat? You can find out more about this below in the article.
Frogs and toads are closely related. The difference between them is that frogs have smoother skin, long strong hind legs with well-developed membranes between the toes. All this helps frogs to jump well and swim quickly. And the toad has dry skin covered with “warts”, their legs are weak and short, allowing them to move only by waddling or in short jumps. The membranes between the toes are not developed, which is why they swim poorly and spend less time in the water (in fact, only during the breeding season).
By structure and appearance It’s difficult to determine what a frog eats, but we can make a guess. It has a flat back and head, and its eyes often protrude above the water surface like bubbles of liquid, without revealing the animal itself. The hind paws are strong, like a spring, and the front paws, designed like palms, are grasping. The frog's jaws are studded with sharp, small teeth facing inward. The wide mouth contains a sticky tongue. By comparing all of the above external signs, we can guess what the frog eats - mostly small aquatic inhabitants.
Spreading
This family (true frogs) belongs to the order of tailless amphibians. The composition of the latter is numerous, including 32 genera and about 400 species. Most of them are inhabitants of the jungle (humid tropics).
The largest of the tailless amphibians is the goliath frog (3 kilograms), which lives on the coast of the Republic of Cameroon in Africa. Quite recently, the smallest frog was discovered in New Guinea - the size of a little fingernail.
IN middle lane Russia is mainly inhabited by species of the gray and common toad. They are widespread in Russia to Sakhalin, as well as throughout Europe and Africa (northwest).
Most of these amphibians have a modest, inconspicuous color, but some of them can have quite bright outfits, especially poisonous species, living mostly in the tropics.
Species of frogs and toads
Before we find out what frogs eat in a pond, as well as in other natural and domestic conditions, we will consider the most common varieties of these amphibians. Their life (toads and frogs) is closely connected with water, however, there are species that, as adults, mainly live and hunt only on land.
In central Russia there are 4 species of frogs: lake, pond, grass, sharp-faced. The first two species are green in color, the second are closer to brown.
Among the inhabitants of Russian gardens, the most common are the sharp-faced and herbaceous. The first one has a protective coloration that allows it to be invisible on the ground, but it is much smaller in size than the grass one. The second has a gray-brown or brown back with spots different colors, and its belly is mostly light with dark spots.
In addition to the grass frog, the Siberian frog also lives in the territories of Siberia. Distinctive feature hers are pink spots on a brown belly.
Among toads, the most common are 2 types:
- ordinary, or gray, with a dark brown back;
- green, with large green spots on a light gray back.
Nutritional Features
All types of frogs are tireless in obtaining food. What does a frog eat? It is known that the grass frog has been summer period eats approximately 1,300 insects - pests of gardens and vegetable gardens. And the sharp-faced one exterminates many pests, including stink bugs and beetles, which even birds avoid.
As a rule, frogs forage for food during the day, and toads destroy pests mostly at night and at dusk.
What does a frog eat and how does it do it? They, like toads, are insectivorous animals. Frogs have teeth only on the upper jaw, and toads do not have them at all, so they have nothing to bite off pieces of food with. Due to these features, food is swallowed whole by frogs and toads. They catch their prey with the help of their original tongue - long, strong and forked at the end. It is thrown out of the mouth with lightning speed in the direction of the victim, and then, due to the fact that it is sticky, it returns back with the prey already stuck.
Another interesting fact is that food enters the esophagus thanks to the eyes. When blinking, the eyes plunge deeper, pushing food into the esophagus.
Toads have an excellent appetite. The main food for them are invertebrate animals: worms, insects, bedbugs, spiders, caterpillars, mollusks, etc. More than half (60%) of all insects eaten by the toad are agricultural pests. These animals also feed on slugs. Many gardeners observe unpleasant slugs on strawberries, which usually hide in the damp soil during the day, and in the evening come out to eat the soft, juicy fruits of the sweet strawberry. ripe strawberries. It is very difficult to fight them. This is precisely where toads are excellent helpers.
The adult frog is a carnivore. The frog feeds on mosquitoes and other types of insects. For the lake fish fry are tasty prey. Due to this, considerable damage is caused to fish farms. Hiding in shallow water, the frog waits for a school of fry, and having waited for them, it sharply opens its mouth, into which a bunch of fish are drawn in by the flow of water. Tadpoles may also be in the mouths of the fry.
Plant remains are often present in the stomachs of frogs, because part of the leaves and flowers on which their prey was sitting sticks to their tongue. All this is quickly swallowed by the frog, after which it again goes for new food.
The larval stage of different species of frogs is very similar.
Tadpoles hatched from eggs do not have a mouth opening. The embryonic supply of nutrients ends after about seven days, when their length reaches 1.5 cm. During this period, the mouth breaks through and independent feeding begins.
The main food of tadpoles is single-celled algae. Random impurities that are absorbed by the frog's body along with the main food are mold fungi, protozoan flagellates and other microorganisms.
The tadpole's mouthparts are well adapted for scraping off algae deposits and are shaped like a “beak” surrounded by fringed lips. The lower one has rough growths and is larger in size than the upper one. Tadpoles feed during the day, being in warm water in the shallows and off the coast, forming mass aggregations (up to 10,000 pieces). Not all of them survive, since the larvae of frogs serve as food for birds, fish and many other inhabitants of the reservoir.
The tadpoles turn into young frogs. They are quite gluttonous. When full, their stomach volume exceeds 1/5 of the total mass.
Another curious detail is that if there is not enough animal food in the reservoir, the tadpole overwinters in the larval stage, postponing the transformation into a predator until spring.
Aquarium frogs
The clawed frog is especially popular among aquarists, whose skin secretions have the effect of a natural antiseptic that disinfects water well. Such a frog is usually placed in an aquarium with fish that have some kind of infection. However, there must be a mesh partition between them, since the frog can eat its “patients”.
Typically, amphibians living in an aquarium feed on live food: earthworms, daphnia, bloodworms, etc. Due to the fact that frogs move little in captivity, they tend to become obese. They should be fed no more than 2 times a week. They can also eat thinly sliced lean meat or fish.
What do frog tadpoles eat at home? In the very first days it suits them powdered milk(baby formula is also good). In the second week, you can introduce a mixture of insects and herbs into the diet after a good steaming in the oven or in the sun to avoid various putrefactive processes.
Beef liver and small bloodworms are injected into last days metamorphosis to strengthen the body of small frogs, but all this should be crushed to the smallest size.
Conclusion
Creating animal world, nature has shown incredible ingenuity. To the number amazing miracles Can also be classified as amphibians.
They emerged from the World Ocean millions of years ago, but their connection with the water element was not interrupted. And they begin their life in water.
Hello, friends!
Today I want to tell you about frogs and toads- full-fledged residents of our gardens and vegetable gardens, who help control the number of pests. If acceptable conditions are created for them, they will happily settle in the gardens and be in large quantities eat slugs, caterpillars, insect larvae, earwigs, click beetles, ants, moths, mosquitoes and other pests living within their reach.
If you do not use pesticides and do not leave inorganic fertilizers on the ground in undissolved form, and do not mow the grass too often in at least some parts of the garden, frogs and toads will be comfortable and they will come to live on your lands. And if not far from the site there is at least a small body of water with places convenient for the breeding of frogs and toads, their help will be provided in early spring.
Not everyone loves these most useful and beautiful (don’t be surprised, all creations are perfect) amphibians (amphibians), some are even afraid of them, believing that warts appear from frogs and toads. I declare with full responsibility that this is not true - there is no confirmation of these rumors. Yes, I myself in childhood and more mature age I took frogs and toads in my hands, but I didn’t have warts. And children begin to be afraid of amphibians because they are frightened by adults who were frightened by their parents as children.
The benefits of frogs and toads
The beneficial activities of amphibians have been noted in various literature. Feeding almost exclusively on animal food, they exterminate insects that harm gardens, vegetable gardens, meadows, fields and forests. The great benefit of amphibians in regulating the number of harmful insects in gardens and vegetable gardens has long been noticed. In England, Holland, and Hungary, gardeners specially imported toads from other countries and released them into greenhouses and gardens. In the mid-30s Hawaiian Islands About 150 individuals of the aga toad were brought from the Antilles. There they were bred and more than a million toads were released into sugar cane plantations. The results were very pleasing. In the USSR, young people released frogs for school events. And we don’t need to do anything - don’t disturb the frogs and toads, and they will come themselves. Already in Russia there are reservoirs and wild places enough for their reproduction and wintering.
Razorback frog, grass frog, gray toad, green toad
In Russia, people most often live in gardens and vegetable gardens. gray (ordinary - Bufo bufo L.) And green (Bufo viridis Laur.) toads, grass frogs and brown frogs , south of Moscow there are spadefoot, so named because of their garlic-like odor. All of them are sensitive to air humidity in the soil layer. At humidity above 90% lives grass frog , it does not tolerate dry air, can live both in the Far North (in reservoirs) and in the forest-steppe zone near rivers, but does not spread far beyond the Urals. (Rana arvalis Nilsson) is much less sensitive to dry air. The most resistant to dryness and air temperature toads, especially green, which occupies the driest habitats inaccessible to other amphibians, and dies only when it loses 50% of its body weight in water.
Reproduction of frogs and toads
The reproduction of frogs and toads is characterized by internal fertilization (not in all amphibians). Sexually mature individuals gather in reservoirs in the spring, mate, after which the females spawn. Clutches occur close to the shore in shallow, unshaded, well-warmed places. From the eggs after some time, depending on the type of individual and ambient temperature, tadpoles hatch, grow, and eat mainly algae, inaccessible to other vertebrates. From the end of June, and in some places by autumn, tadpoles turn into frogs, emerge from reservoirs and disperse throughout the area, walking up to 60 meters per day. It’s very interesting what’s in the egg shells sharp-faced frogs contains the substance ranidine, which kills protozoan microorganisms. IN folk medicine Dried frog roe is used to treat erysipelas of the face.
How do frogs and toads winter?
Overwinter different types differently. Gray and green toad They bury themselves in loose soil to a depth of 10-12 cm, overwinter in rodent burrows, pits, under stones, and in cracks in walls. Sharp-faced frogs They winter on land: in holes covered with leaves, in piles of leaves and pine needles, under piles of branches, in rodent burrows. Garlics burrow into the soil or use rodent burrows, mole passages or shore swallow nests. grass frogs They prefer to winter in peat pits, springs, at the bottom of reservoirs, under high banks, in thickets of vegetation, in flowing reservoirs under stones. Unfortunately, in harsh snowless winters, amphibians often die. Even wintering in water grass frogs die from lack atmospheric gases or freezing of the reservoir to the bottom.
Amphibian breathing
Amphibians breathe through their lungs and skin. The grass frog receives 33% of oxygen through its skin. Exchange of gases through the skin with environment in amphibians it occurs only through the water film, so the skin is constantly moistened with mucus produced by numerous glands. In the sun, the film on the skin dries out and prevents moisture loss. For protection, toads have poisonous glands that secrete substances with a pungent odor, a very bitter taste, a burning and emetic effect. After all, they cannot move quickly and escape from the hunter. The venom of gray and green toads is not dangerous to humans, especially since it is released only under mechanical pressure.
These species of frogs and toads hunt mainly at night, leaving their shelters in the evening. During the day grass frogs hiding in damp places, hugging the ground, and spadefoot bury themselves in . Toads When going out in the evening to feed, they often bathe in water or dew. Amphibians, more than birds, eat insects from unpleasant smell and taste and insects with a protective coloring. If cultivated plantings in gardens and fields are treated with pesticides, frogs and toads, birds die, and pests adapt, become immune to similar poisons and reproduce in geometric progression, forcing the use of increasingly stronger poisons.
In places where people treat nature carefully and wisely, biocenoses are formed from animals, including frogs and toads, which regulate the number of various pests in the garden and vegetable garden. Yes, there are wormy apples, but the product turns out to be environmentally friendly, because the worm will not eat the harmful plant. In many places in vast Russia it is customary to burn autumn leaves, grass, branches. But a lot of frogs hibernate in them and under them. And after lying through the winter, not even in a compost heap, leaves and grass can serve as excellent mulch and part of soil mixtures. Tree branches can be buried in new beds, or even better, they can be processed into wood chips (read) and sprinkled on the paths on the site, the ground under the trees and shrubs, where they will rot and enrich.
Let's together take care of the space in which we live, not litter or poison! Then we will be healthier too.
I photographed this beautiful green toad on my porch in 2008, the photo can be viewed at large size. These toads are very rarely seen.
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