Here are my other Brazos Bend
and/or critter pages:
Bullfrogs---------------------------------------------------
OR, FOR OTHER ANIMALS:
Alligators
at Brazos Bend State Park Introduction
Critters at Brazos
Bend State Park Page 1
Snakes-nonvenomous
1-------------------------------------------
Critters
at Brazos Bend State Park Page 3
Snakes-nonvenomous
2-------------------------------------------------Insects,
non-toxic
Snakes-nonvenomous
3------------------------------------------------Spiders
Snakes-venomous------------------------------------------------------Mammals
Birds-Waders----Birds-Raptors---------------------------------
LIZARDS!
04/09/2009
--I encountered a Squirrel Tree Frog and was able to shoot some
high-speed video of it as it climbed a tree. While watching the video,
I noticed how the frog occasionally was able to hold on by just one
front foot. Then I wondered how
the frog's foot stuck at all. I was
pretty sure that it was by suction (even though the toe pads look like
suction cups--see below). I searched online and discovered that
the surface of a tree-frog's toe pads is not smooth. Instead, the
surface is split into
many microscopic "tiles". These sections
are each surrounded by a narrow space. Mucous is extruded from the
spaces between these "tiles" or "pegs". The mucous wets the face
of each "tile", which then sticks to a surface by liquid adhesion
(similar
to the way a beer glass can stick to a coaster). The
adhesion of thousands of these microscopic "beer glass bottoms" combine
to form a powerful sticking force. When the frog moves, it
has to peel its toes off the surface it is clinging to.
SQUIRREL TREE FROG CLIMBING (Link to video (wmv)) I found information about this in these papers (I haven't put links, since they usually expire over time):
ADHESION AND DETACHMENT OF THE TOE PADS OF TREE FROGS
BY GAVIN HANNA AND W. JON P. BARNES*
1990
The SEM Comparative Study on Toe Pads among 11 Species of Tree Frogs from Taiwan
Wen-Jay Lee, Chia-Hua Lue, Kuang-Yang Lue
2001
-------------------------------
GREEN RIDER
Actually,
I see these Green Tree Frogs fairly often while in the rice, and usually
that just land on the argo, or me, and then just jump off. This one, however,
stayed for a while, and so I grabbed my "smaller" camera and took some
pictures. They came out really well, I thought, so here they are.
I can't believe they came out like this!
I was
got this great closeup (see REALLY CLOSE, below), and while I had the camera
near it, the frog turned and faced the camera (see GET MY BETTER SIDE,
below). Finally this frog jumped off.
-
-
-
-
REALLY
CLOSE
GET MY BETTER SIDE
YOU WANT ME TO JUMP!?
WHAT ARE YOU POINTING AT?
DON'T MAKE ME GO
Later
in the afternoon, I was at it again with the argo, and another frog jumped
on. This time, I reached for it (with the camera in the other hand), and
the frog jumped onto my hand. It crawled to the knuckle of my curled finger,
and posed for a while (see YOU WANT ME TO JUMP. above). After I took a
few pictures, I gently tried to let it jump off, but it wouldn't go. I
extended my finger (see WHAT ARE YOU POINTING AT, above), and the frog
just crawled around on my hand and finger. It perched on my knuckle
again, where I got this great picture (see DON'T MAKE ME GO, above).
It always affects me to have such a small creature trust me like this.
I want to stand still for a while and let it remain. But, I had my work
to do, and I figured the frog would be safer back in the grass, so I finally
got it to jump to a strand. With a slight twinge, I moved away from my
brief acquaintance.
If you'd like to know more about the park follow these links:
Brazos Bend State Park The main page.
Brazos
Bend State Park Volunteer's Page The
volunteer's main page.
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to rickubis.com
Go
back to the RICKUBISCAM page.
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