During my recent field season, I would often return to sites to catch Growling Grass Frogs. Although not a mark-recapture study, as my purpose was to collect genetic samples from as many Growling Grass Frogs as possible, I inevitably did recapture individuals. When this occurred, I took some measurements and a photo of the recaptured frog. This lead to some interesting observations. One individual particularly caught my attention, as each time I caught him (twice in total, one month apart) he had a serious foot injury. A Growling Grass Frog with a foot injury is unfortunately not an unusual occurrence. I have come across many during my field work. While they differ in their severity and time since the incident occurred, I assume that most are the result of a narrow escape from a predator, including bites from turtles often found in the same wetlands. This particular injury was unusual however, in that I recaptured the individual and was therefore able to see the degree of healing that had occurred during the month in between. I was surprised by the speed of the healing process, especially given this frog was caught from a polluted wetland in an industrial area. As frogs have semi-permeable skin, they have to be tough at fighting disease and injury. When I originally caught this individual, he had two protruding bones, when I recaptured him one month later, these protrusions appeared to have broken off and the skin had grown over the wounds. The frog appeared in good physical condition on both occasions (other than the foot injury). Although the two photos I have are unfortunately of different sides of the foot, they still show the healing that had occurred and demonstrate how resilient frogs can be. One of the many remarkable attributes that make frogs the most amazing animals.
The frog’s foot 23 January 2012
- The same foot 23 February 2012
