Ecological  Description

Frogs croaking on summer nights

     Before summer vacation, we've seen lots of dragonflies. We wonder what's going on in the wetlands during summer vacation. Two of the students that live nearby the school said that they've heard the sound of frogs in the night time. Now, we really look forward to the summer science camp in late August. In this camp we can learn more interesting things about frogs, toads, and dragonfly nymphs in Taiwan. We can't wait to know the names
 of those flying dragonflies and the           
croaking frogs at school.                                                  (In the picture, in the red circle is a Diplacodes trivialis)

                                     

Frog watching

        Watching frogs at night is the activity which we were  most excited about  in science camp. We haven't experienced holding flashlights to observe animals at school, so we were very excited about that. First we listened to the sound of amphibians in the audio classroom, and then read the science encyclopedia which teachers handed out. We learned that the croaking was not from the frogs, it was from the toads.

      We hope to see many kinds of frogs tonight, not only ugly toads. On the way to the wetlands, we saw Black-spectacled Toad which made all the girls scream. Our teachers caught one of them and showed us the character of this animal. Then we went to the wetlands to see more frogs. However, we just heard a very weak sound which sounded like frogs or insects. We were a little disappointed because  there were not many frogs there. Our teacher comforted us by saying that maybe there aren't many frogs because the wetlands have just been built.   We might see more frogs after a period of time.  Actually, Taiwan is a good place for watching frogs; there are 30 different species of frogs and toads here.

      Frogs and toads breathe not only by using their lungs but also through their skin. To keep their skin wet, they have to stay in the shadows, like under the trees or near the  rivers. To avoid their skin drying out, they always hide in the trees, grass, or holes at daytime, and they will start their day in the evening. Because they are small animals and their eyes can only see moving objects, they have to catch small animals, like ants and worms. When they need food, they always stay in the same place and use their tongues to catch the animals as they see them fly or crawl in front of them.

     Their skin offers a good camouflage, so it's hard to see them. For example, the ones on the ground are always brown, red brown, or dark gray, but the others which live in the trees are green. Next time if you want to watch the frogs, find a place near water, and be careful of the snakes which eat frogs. And remember to put on a hat and shoes.  
　

Pictures in the summer camp
　

Observing the pond scum	Observing and management of the wetland
Observing the nymph of the dragonfly	To ckect out and record . Ready to go!
Observing thenymph of the dragonfly  and the pond scum	The teacher introduced the importance of protecting the ecology

       After our study in the camp, we knew that the dragonflies which flew over the wetland were Pantala flavescens. Our teacher said they flew very fast because they wanted to catch their food. We learned a lot in the camp, it was interesting.