It is said that once upon a time in the animal kingdom, the Frog and the Snake used to be close friends. So one day, the duo decided to prepare a meal and eat together.
After preparing the meal, they sat at tables, washed their hands and got ready to eat. “Snake, please sit up,” says Frog. Snake tries to sit up, but she is not a frog. “I cannot sit up like you frog,” says Snake.
Before the snake could struggle to sit up and eat, frog had finished the food. This angered the snake, who decided to eat the frog in place of the food.
This made the snake and frog perceptual enemies.
But one day, a little frog and little snake became friends, not knowing of the existing enmity. So every day the new friends will play from morning till evening. When they get home they cry of hunger.
One day the mother snake asked little snake, who have you been playing with that makes you come back home hungry these days? Little snake answered, it’s my new friend, little frog.
Mother snake was angry and said, you play with your food. She advised the little snake that frogs are our food, when next you see it, catch it and eat it. It is your meal for the day.
Mother frog on the other hand also became inquisitive and inquired to know who the frog has been playing with of late. Little frog answered and said it’s little snake.
Little frog almost fainted and told little frog not to go near the snake again because the snake will eat it some day.
So the following day when they met at their usual place the frog stood afar off. The snake tried all it could to get close to the frog but the frog kept hopping back.
After unsuccessful trial, the snake asked, why are you not willing to play with me today? The frog answered, “what your mother told you is also what my mother told me.”
That was the end of the friendship and chances of reconciliation for both old friends and up till now snakes eat frogs, while the frog do all they can to evade they snake.
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura.
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Frogs are widely distributed, ranging from the tropics to subarctic regions, but the greatest concentration of species diversity is in tropical rainforest.
Researchers say they account for around 88% of extant amphibian species globally and are also one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders.
Frogs typically lay their eggs in water. The eggs hatch into aquatic larvae called tadpoles that have tails and internal gills. They have highly specialized rasping mouth parts suitable for herbivorous, omnivorous or planktivorous diets.
The life cycle is completed when they metamorphose into adults. A few species deposit eggs on land or bypass the tadpole stage. Adult frogs generally have a carnivorous diet consisting of small invertebrates, but omnivorous species exist and a few feed on plant matter.
Called “Awọ” in Igbo, “Ọpọlọ” in Yoruba and “kwadi” in Hausa, frog’s skin has a rich microbiome which is important to their health.
Frogs need suitable land and freshwater habitats in order to survive. They also have highly permeable skin that can easily absorb bacteria, chemicals and other toxins.
These traits make them susceptible to changes in the environment Frogs are also extremely efficient at converting what they eat into body mass.
Despite being irritating, frogs play a crucial role to the environment and contribute to human health.
It is said that frogs feed on insects such as pesky bugs, adult mosquitoes and their larvae, which can transmit diseases including Dengue fever, Malaria, West Nile fever and Zika.
As tadpoles, they eat algae, helping regulate blooms and reducing the chances of algal contamination. Frogs are also an important source of food for a variety of animals, including birds, fish, monkeys and snakes.
They are also seen as environmental bellwethers, meaning they are an indicator species or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment.
Reports also say frogs have served as experimental animals throughout the history of science as they are used to understand biological phenomena in a variety of other animals, including how birds, mammals and reptiles reproduce, grow and develop.
Frogs live between two to ten years depending on the environment and specie.
