Joe has a Balloon & More Frog Facts

Just when you think you've see Joe's last trick she comes up with something new.

This morning I joined Ginger at the dining table. Ginger was looking for Joe and I was just looking because I had already found her. Just then this bright pink thing appears in Joe's mouth. Ginger now knew where Joe was too. Who could miss her?

My first thought was Joe had captured some kinds of creature and was in the process of devouring it. Then the pink "whatever" disappeared only to reappear a few seconds later. I grabbed my binoculars and zoomed in on Joe.

I'm not sure what I saw. What ever it was came out of Joe and she was washing it with her front legs/paws/appendages. I guess it could have been her tongue. It seemed to fill with air like a balloon but I can't imagine it being her lungs. Possibly she extends her stomach to get rid of non-digestible stuff (like feather balls).

What ever it was it is now back inside her and she is on station awaiting another bird.

After witnessing this I've rededicated myself to try and find out what is going on in the bullfrog world. So far I haven't figured out what I saw but I did find out more stuff about the American Bullfrog that I'll pass along.

She doesn't have ribs! Because they are rib challenged frogs can't breath like creatures that have ribs. They can't expand their chest like you and I. To breath they do a couple of different things. They can do something like swallowing but instead of swallowing they force air into their lungs. The also produce rhythmical raising and lowering of the floor of the mouth that, with the nose opened, introduces air into the lungs. The frog has specialized elastic fibers that maintain pressure in the lungs so they can expel the air. Frogs, at least frogs like Joe, apparently don't breath all the time thus having apnea like pauses where they don't breath in or out.

Another thing I found was the big hump on the back of the frog is it's hips. Take a look at the picture on the left. Those pointy things sticking up from it's back are it's hips. Who would have thought that? Well, to answer my own question, probably any kid who actually dissected a frog in biology class I suppose. Oh, this picture is not Joe. I couldn't find a picture of Joe showing her sexy hips so I plagiarized myself and stole this shot of a sexy teenage frog off the Internet.

I also found what will probably happen to Joe when the weather turns cold. It's called torpor which is, apparently, another way of saying hibernation. Bullfrogs are not freeze tolerant. In autumn, adults become torpid before frost occurs, while the teenagers and pre-teens stay active until freezing weather is upon us. Winter hibernation usually takes place under water where individuals bury themselves in surface mud or construct protective pits or cave-like holes. One researcher reported a torpid bullfrog from a terrestrial hibernaculum (a non-water shelter for hibernation usually for insects or reptiles), buried under leaf litter in a soil pocket of an oak-hickory woods in Michigan (WOW, that must have been an exciting day for that guy!!). Radio-tagged bullfrogs in Nova Scotia hibernated in a pond and tolerated prolonged hypoxia (that's low oxygen to you and me). In a radio telemetry study in Ohio, bullfrogs overwintered in relatively shallow areas (less than 3 feet) near small inlet streams of ponds, as well as 3-6 feet off-shore of ponds, and remained active throughout the hibernation period (winter). These bullfrogs laid on the pond bottom and were not covered by silt. Juvenile bullfrogs cease motor activity between 0–1 ˚C (32 - 30 F).

I'm still looking for an answer to what I saw this morning. Stay tuned.