Mum and Dad preparing to spawn.
Image: Alan Henderson
Source: Museum Victoria
Tiny taddies in Live Exhibits!
Melbourne Museum's Live Exhibits department has succeeded in breeding a vulnerable species of frog.
Litoria raniformis, or the Growling Grass Frog, is a local Victorian frog whose numbers have dramatically declined in wild populations over the past few years.
Live Exhibits has eight of these frogs and successfully bred them once before, in 2001.
Frogs breed by spawning, whereby the male and female release sperm and eggs simultaneously to form a jelly-like substance in which the tadpoles begin their development. After approximately three days, tiny tadpoles emerge from their eggs and eat their way through the jelly. It takes around three months for them to become mature frogs.
Once these little taddies sprout their legs they will be displayed in the Forest Gallery, before being offered to other zoological institutions for display and educational purposes.