Hop Hop Hooray For Manchester Museum's Baby Frogs!

Staff at The Manchester Museum are hopping for joy at the moment. They're the proud owners of hundreds of tiny baby frogs. Why frogs? Read on for the full froggie story...

Photo: Andrew the herpetologist makes a new friend

Courtesy of The Manchester Museum.

The Museum has a herpetology department. 'Herpetology' is the study of reptiles and amphibians. Andrew Gray, the chap in our picture, is their herpetologist - an expert on frogs, snakes, lizards and other slithery, scaly and slimy creatures.

Two years ago Andrew went on an expedition to Queensland in Australia, to collect some frogs from the rainforest. He had to get a special permit from the Australian government to do this. Usually it would be against the law to take live specimens out of the country.

Photo: he may be tiny, but this frog could help solve a medical mystery!

Courtesy of The Manchester Museum.

So what's so special about these frogs? Well, all over the world frogs are falling victim to a fungal infection. These particular Australian frogs don't seem to get this infection, so Andrew wanted to study them, to find out why.

The three species he collected are called 'Dainty Tree Frogs', Red-eyed Tree Frogs' and 'Orange-thighed Tree Frogs'. If he discovers their secret to staying healthy, then this might help scientists to stop other frogs getting infected.

Photo: this is a tomato frog - I wonder why it's called that?!

Courtesy of The Manchester Museum.

Once Andrew got the frogs back to Manchester, he set about making them feel at home. The weather there is very different from the weather in the Australian rainforest, so one of the most important things they had to do was to make sure his hoppy visitors were kept at the right temperature.

The frogs were obviously very happy, and seemed to like their new home, because soon there were hundreds of tadpoles to look after too.

Photo: a green tree snake, holding on very tight!

Courtesy of The Manchester Museum.

In the wild those hundreds of tadpoles wouldn't all survive, but safe in their tank, being looked after very carefully, it was a different story.

So, there are now hundreds of teeny, tiny frogs hopping around. They're on display at The Manchester Museum over the summer holidays.

At the moment the frogs are between one and two cm long. When they get bigger they'll have to be moved to a larger tank and won't be on display any more. There are lots of other reptiles and amphibians at the Museum though, so do go and visit them!

If you'd like to have a go at collecting and identifying some specimens to study, check out Mission: Explore. It's an online nature game, made by Show Me and The Natural History Museum, where you get to be an explorer on a scientific expedition.