Frogs. We didn’t see many on our farm. The ponds were just too muddy, so I can’t personally attest to the precarious existence of frogs, or amphibians in general.

Though we rarely saw a frog on our farm, my sister and I captured many tadpoles (with a rusty old flour sifter our mom gave us). We watched them develop legs and eventually released them. If we let them go too near the house, our dog would try to eat them. The attack never resulted in a toad sandwich, but rather in a dog spitting and frothing at the mouth. I always thought that the toad peed in the dog’s mouth, but I’ve learned that those little bumps behind its ears secrete a nasty poison.

I’ve rarely thought of toads as predators, but they like cutworms and all manner of insects. Unfortunately for them, snakes (in the case of my photo) particularly bull snakes like toads.

According to the conservation Website, Save the Frogs, one third of amphibian species world-wide are endangered. Now maybe you don’t care about those slimy little creatures. I ran across a photo and a paragraph about frog-spotting in Costa Rica, though, and that reminded me of the bright-colored little guy I got to photograph there. Take a look at the little guy below. Don’t you think he deserves a fighting chance?