When tadpoles first emerge from their eggs their gills are on the outside of their bodies, like little fans on the sides of their head trapping oxygen for the taddy to breath. Because they are so small at this stage it is not easy to see and they quickly develop and their gills are incorporated into their bodies.

Because frogs often lay their spawn in still water, as the puddles dry up, they lose their oxygen content and so the tadpoles need to find air in different ways. This is why you often see tadpoles popping to the surface for a quick gulp of air before diving for their hiding spot on the bottom of a pond again. They are just trying to breath.

Frogs also have a curious relationship with oxygen. Their skin is a very porous membrane and so substances pass easily through it. So oxygen from the water in which they are swimming is absorbed through their skins and this is why they can swim under water for a long time to evade a predator. They literally breath underwater!

This ability to absorb things through their skins is also why we need to protect our ground water from chemicals. Anything that is present in the environment will be absorbed by the frogs and this can be very hazardous to their delicate systems.

Motorbike frogs are very competitive survivors.

One of their little tricks for eliminating the competition is to exude a chemical as they emerge from the water in the last stages of developing from tadpole to frog. This chemical has the effect of inhibiting the development of other tadpoles in the pond. The tadpoles don’t turn into frogs and therefore don’t compete for food with the lucky fellows who did.

It seems to me that this chemical builds up as more froglets emerge until the concentration is enough that it has the desired effect on all the remaining tadpoles. Pretty slick, huh!

Another nasty trick is associated with their hunting style. Motorbike frogs are motion hunters. They will eat only things that move and are of a suitable size. Unfortunately, this includes smaller frogs. Yikes! This is a very effective way of eliminating upcoming threats to the food source.

Motorbike frogs grow in proportion to the amount of food they eat and, so, the more they eat the bigger they get. It is very important to them, therefore, to protect their claim on the food in their environment. It’s a Frog eat Frog world!