LIFE Big Pic: Frog Super Mom

[n2doc]

March 22, 2010 -- We've noticed many people watching the "Life" series on the Discovery Channel were particularly impressed with the Herculean mom efforts made by the female strawberry poison arrow frog to ensure her young survive. So, we thought we'd revisit this amazing amphibian that lives in Central American rain forests.

Among this species, it is the female that initiates mating, rather than the male, which is unusual in the animal kingdom. After mating, the female lays up to five eggs. It is then the responsibility of the male to guard and keep the clutch of eggs moist by emptying its bladder on the eggs until they hatch.

Once the young emerge from their eggs, the super mom springs into action.

She may measure less than an inch long, but the female strawberry poison arrow frog climbs vertical marathons while carrying her young tadpoles, one by one on her back, from the rainforest floor up trees that can tower up to 100 feet high. There, she finds individual miniature nurseries within the small pools of water that form in the axils of bromeliad leaves.

more

http://news.discovery.com/animals/life-big-pic-frog-super-mom.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. The creatures of this planet struggle so hard to survive..and man comes along and

destroys them without a second thought...

[roguevalley]

2. damn, she rules.