♪ [upbeat music]
(Bruce Doran) Hello, my name is Bruce Doran.
I'm one of the staff scientists that works here on the third floor,
and I'm in front of one of our frog habitats
and the reason being is that visitors regularly ask us questions about frogs
and one particular question they ask is
whether or not it's a good idea to hold frogs.
And in order to answer that question,
we need to better understand the biology of frogs.
So this video,
we'll explain a bit about the biology and ecology of frogs
so Frog Biology 101.
So I'm holding in my hands a bullfrog,
and bullfrogs, like a lot of frogs, they have very similar features.
One of the features that all frogs have in common is this very large mouth.
And it has a sticky tongue within it,
which obviously they use to capture prey.
And in the case of a bullfrog,
they can actually eat animals almost the same size as their mouth
so sometimes they will actually eat other frogs
so you have to be careful with bullfrogs.
The other feature also they have are the bulging eyes,
obviously to see their prey.
And in fact frogs will only see things that move
so the insect or the little prey animal needs to move
in order for them to see.
Also having eyes on the top of their head
allows them to see above water,
while the rest of the body is underneath water.
Another feature that they all have in common are these long legs
which they use for jumping, for swimming, for getting around
and are quite powerful
and I'm actually holding him by the legs.
It's the best thing,
best way to hold him without actually hurting him.
Now I keep calling him "him"
and the reason for that is in the case of bullfrogs,
you can actually tell the difference between a male and a female bullfrog
by looking at this structure right behind the eye.
And this is actually called a tympanum,
or an eardrum.
In the case of a bullfrog,
if the tympanum is bigger than the eye,
it is a male.
If the tympanum is similar size of the eye or smaller than the eye,
then it is a female.
So you can actually tell with bullfrogs and another type of frog, green frogs,
whether they're a male or female
by looking at the size of the tympanum.
And in the case of other frogs,
you can't really see by looking at the tympanum.
The only other way is to kinda put your fingers underneath their armpits,
and if the frog kinda screams or growls or gives you a noise,
then that's a male.
If it doesn't do any sound,
then that's a female.
So as you could tell,
frogs are quite neat
and they're built really well
to be able to live in wetland habitats and aquatic habitats.
So the question people keep asking me
is whether or not it's a good idea to be holding frogs in their hands,
and as you could tell I'm actually wearing gloves.
And it's actually not a very good idea
because frog skin is very very sensitive.
Frogs can breathe with their lungs
so they have little nostrils on the top of their snout
in order to breathe in air with their lungs,
but also frogs can breathe through their skin.
And in order to breathe through their skin,
they use the slimy layer that's actually on the top of their skin.
Now if you take your hands and you hold the frog,
you can actually remove that slimy layer
and make it very difficult for the frog
to be able to breathe underwater.
Another reason why it's not a really good idea to hold frogs
is because when people see a frog out in the wild,
in a pond or whatever.
A lot of times people are wearing either sunscreen or bug repellant
which is actually extremely toxic to frogs.
So unless your hands are very very clean,
you shouldn't be holding frogs,
especially with that sunscreen or bug repellant.
Also the third thing is that
not many people know how to hold frogs properly.
I'm holding this bullfrog with its legs,
and supporting with its front legs.
So I'm not actually squishing its body and it's fine that way.
A lot of the times people don't know how to hold frogs
and they can actually hurt it.
So generally I tell people it's not a good idea to hold frogs
unless they know what they're doing
and they know how to hold them without hurting them,
and also unless they have very, very clean hands.
So that's why at Science North,
we don't allow people to touch frogs
because it's just too easy for them to get sick
from being touched by people's hands.
So this is a replica skeleton of the bullfrog.
So as you can tell bullfrogs, just like us,
they have a backbone,
but what makes them a little bit different is they have unique features
you don't necessarily see in certain other animals.
So they have these very long back legs
to which muscles are attached,
to which they use for swimming and for jumping.
They have these very long back toes,
which again they use for moving around
but these are webbed,
so they'll use their back legs in order to swim.
But one thing that's really neat about amphibians,
especially frogs,
is the size of their skull.
They actually have very, very big heads.
These two holes right here are actually for the eyes
and when we look in front right over here,
you could see the mouth is actually very very big.
So they need very large mouth
in order to capture prey
and to swallow it into their stomach.
So bullfrogs, just like any other frogs,
their scalp and their bodies are well-adapted to living in the environments,
usually aquatic environments.
So I hope you learned a little bit about the biology and ecology of frogs
and whether or not it is a good idea to hold frogs.
So if you wanna see some of our frogs here at Science North
and learn a little bit more about them,
you're more than welcome to join us here on the third floor.