Photo Phriday 24

This one probably not of widespread interest to the trapping community, but nonetheless intriguing to me. The Northern Tailed Frog (Ascaphus montanus) is pretty unique. Only found in the cold, rushing, boulder-filled streams of Montana and Idaho (and a few places in Washington), this is a weird little frog. Only known frog with internal fertilization, the males retain part of their tail into adulthood, which becomes a penis for copulation. Because the rushing streams are so noisy, they also have no known voice, as it probably couldn't be heard more than a short distance anyway. The "tadpoles" have a series of teeth on their mouth that allows them to "suction" onto rocks, and they take up to three years to morph into adults, thus, they are active throughout the winter in these cold streams.

This is a metamorph that hasn't yet resorbed its tail.


This is a tadpole that is starting to grow hind legs and shows the teeth rows it uses to hold onto rocks and feed on micronutrients.


This is a fully morphed adult male showing the small retained tail which becomes a "penis" for copulation.


The fully morphed adult. Endearing little sucker, huh?


Jack

New meaning to a piece of tail.......j

Northern flying squirrel....as they are nocturnal it took me a few tries to get a pic of it on my bird feeder.

You would understand and like LT

Very cool and informative.

Love froggies. Have tiny ones here, and they sing.

I think this may be a frog - or is it a toad ?

" I thought you was a ...toad...." ( Brother Where Art Thou )

Gulo
Very cool. I have lived in Idaho my entire life and never heard this. Now I will be looking for one. Love learning something new.

How do you get a squirrel to put it's head in a pickle jar? Hazelnuts!!! We call it Blondie.

That is possibly the funniest sub plot I have ever seen! I don't buy too many shoes because I usually wear boots but every time I see a shoe box it reminds me of that movie LOL

That is possibly the funniest sub plot I have ever seen! I don't buy too many shoes because I usually wear boots but every time I see a shoe box it reminds me of that movie LOL[/quote]

"Uva uvam vivendo varia fit"

Jack

It just says itself.


I liked the sub-plot in The Hunt for Red October.

One PING only......

In the spirit of the OP...

Girls and I raised some tadpoles for a 4H project. Fun for the kids to see the process.

My boys first fur. Caught all by himself.

Used to be lots of these in the creeks and swamps when I was growing up.
All the bait shops sold them for fishing bait.
They are a lot more scarce where I am now and dont see them too often.

Jumper
That is so cool. What was the project name? My family has been involved in 4-H for 80 years if you count my mom. My son and I did a couple years of trapping.

I think what you've got, Sharon, is Pseudacris sierra, the Sierran chorus frog. Excellent photos. Cool little treefrog.

Thank you, Jack, for the ID . Sure love hearing them. They aren’t loud, actually kind of soft little squeaks. They like places with moisture rather than dry.