Once we recover from the drought, and the ground gets saturated enough for puddles to stick around, rather than drain away, there will be tadpoles galore here by the swamp.
The green tree frogs are singing with joy now in their banjo-like way, and from the deep pools come the booming calls of the bullfrogs.
I found this large tadpole a few years ago in the latter part of the process of becoming a frog, when they are called froglets. The tail hasn’t been absorbed yet, but the feet are formed and functional, and the mouth which had been quite small during the amphibian’s algae-eating stage, is in this photo broadened, as it will need to be when it becomes a hunter of insects. While this guy is not quite ready for leaving the puddle and moving about on land, it is very close. In this stage its lungs will complete development and the tail will be absorbed as the body uses the nutrients.
Being a wildlife artist and an illustrator, I am always taking photos of everything I find in the event I need reference material for an art project, and studying the references leads to questions and discoveries that leave me in continual awe.
If you look closely at the photo, you should be able to see a fine line of dots running lengthwise on its body. Tadpoles, have a lateral line on each side of their body for sensing the water conditions and other things around them.
Bullfrog tadpoles do not grow up as quickly as other species of frog and can spend three years developing from egg to adults, so their parents need to choose the pools they lay their eggs in wisely. Too small, and there will not be enough food to sustain all the offspring. The water may even dry up before they can live on land.