The green pond frog (Rana erythraea) lives in ponds, clearly visible on rocks and floating plants, usually in groups, and makes the characteristic croaking call, its belly expanding and contracting in the process. Because these frogs are quite tame, photographers and school children can oberve them for hours.
While frogs live mainly in water, they can easily adjust to land condition specially in the dry season. This makes amphibians one of the most adaptable and oldest creatures on earth. Today, frogs, including this green frog, are threatened by pesticides, pollution, overhunting, and worst, destruction of their natural habitat.
The frog plays a major role in the food web: it preys on insects and worms. On the other hand, it is preyed upon by bigger animals specially birds (heron) and reptiles (snake), and man. There are species of frogs that are extremely poisonous. Natives catch them to poison their arrows. The biggest frog is the Goliath frog an African rainforest species which grows to a weight of three kilos.
Photos by Matthew Marlo Rotor, Canon EOS 350D with Telezoom lens 70-200. Mt. Makiling Botanical Garden, UPLB, Laguna.
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