08 March 2023

Frogspawn

Look out for frogspawn which are the eggs of frogs who return to the same area where they were born. Males arrive and croak to attract females. Each female lays about 2,000 eggs which are fertilised by sperm shed by the males over the eggs. Eggs absorb water, swell into jelly blobs and float. After a few weeks, a tadpole wriggles out of the egg. Over ten weeks, the tadpole grows legs, looses its tail and becomes a small frog which goes to live on land. Found in wet grassland pools or edges of slow flowing streams or drains, frogspawn is part of our native Irish biodiversity.