Saturday, December 08, 2007

A tadpole in winter?

I was just took Basie outside and after playing ball and wandering through the woods, we did a little walk around our pond in the front yard. The water is down to a very low level so it's easy to step in it but still be standing on the dirt/mud. Well I walked in to pull a huge tree branch that had fallen and upon moving the branch a little and breaking the soft ice at the edges, I noticed a large tadpole swim up to the touching of the water to the shore (is there a name for that point of contact?) Anyway, it was the size of a bullfrog tadpole, so the size of my thumb. I am really surprised to be seeing one of these (1) because frogs mate in the spring time and (2) how is it surviving in the cold? and (3) how is it surviving in that little water?


Are there any biologists out there who can explain what I just saw?

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