Back in early June, I started watching these critters jump, and I've sort of been watching them since.
Actually, they've stopped jumping now all together ... guess the colder September weather has them holed up in the mud.
There are/were hundreds upon hundreds of them ... leaping out of the water ... in the huge beaver pond (that once was a swamp plus stream)out back.
They were not all leaping at the same time ... but there was a constant splish/splash that accompanied the leaping things.
- most look like frogs without legs, leaping out of the water to breath air.
- the larger ones - head/bodies extend about 4 inches above the water....that's with no tail visible.
- during August,the jumping took place from morning thru 2 pm
- now, with the colder weather of September, they are no longer jumping
So, I actually considered at one point that they were mutant ninja frogs.
I had attempted to take a couple of pictures with our digital camera back in June ....
Because the jump action is so quick, I only succeeded in getting a couple shots that didn't
really show much - I just figured that they must be tadpoles or legless frogs.
VERY BIG TADPOLES!
But then again it IS a VERY BIG beaver pond.
However, not being an expert on tadpoles and their habits, I still was sort of curious, as there were
so darned many of them. (Coincidently, there sure are a whole lot of frogs!)
Soooo ... then as the summer progressed - around mid-August, I decided to play with the multiple-picture capability of our digital camera. I took about 20 multiple shots of one spot on the pond, where the critters would hopefully jump. And voila! I got a couple of them jumping - one quite weird one, actually.
You've got to admit, this is a bit weird!
over a 2 week period. (Our digital camera can take over 260 pics!)
Invariably, as I was focusing on the spot that I intended to take pictures of, 3 or 4 of them would jump at once... just as I began to depress the shutter.
Then all jumping would cease while my camera clicked-clicked-clicked pictures of nothing but swamp water.
WebScour
I had scoured the web for all things related to mutant frogs...
So, the web-scouring (Google-ing) then took a turn to "swamp lamprey" then to "swamp eel" ... and
Yep - I had never heard of this critter before ... but decided that indeed, my critters could be the Asian Swamp EEL ... an invasive type critter that grows up to 3 feet long .. is at home in the tropics, but can adapt to the cold... is really a fish ... can actually move across land...AND .. most distinguishing ..
Quite capable of leaping out of the water to breath air, as it is an air breathing fish.
Also, the swamp eel head looks like my pics.
Acchhhhh - disgusting!!
Link to Swamp EEL: Swamp Eel Link
Sounds like it has a lot of characteristics that the dreaded snakehead has.
JUST TADPOLES!!!! suggests a wetland expert/friend
However, being persistent, and fastly becoming obsessed - I proceeded.
I asked my neighbor, a retired professor of wildlife biology at UMASS to help me identify what these creatures were.
Unfortunately, I took him out back to show him the great leaping creatures at 6:30 pm ... and... whoops,
I forgot that they didn't jump at that time ( I usually wandered out back in the morning..)
Fortunately, I had the pictures to back up my description of them.
He was somewhat intrigued, and offered to provide me some nets, as the next step would be to... catch one of the critters.
That was 3 weeks ago.
I never succeeded in catching one ... did catch some little tadpoles, though. More along the size of a tadpole that I would expect .. maybe 3/4 inch long at the most.
And the ones I caught weren't the jumping variety ... they were stuck in the muck.
They are too darn quick to catch in the act.
A friend from work suggested getting or making a seine which would require
someone else to assist me in my catching endevors.....
NEXT YEAR, I'LL get one!!!
So, after more Web Scouring, Googling, etc... I have come to the conclusion that ....
They are JUST TADPOLES!!!!
VERY BIG TADPOLES.
Guess tadpoles grow upwards to 5-6 inches.
And they take as long as 2 years to fully develop.
I do have one lingering question for any tadpole/bullfrog/amphibian expert that I have not
found described anywhere as typical tadpole-ish behavior.
And that is:
DO TADPOLES JUMP LIKE SHOWN IN THESE PHOTOS ???????
Link to more photos: MORE Swampthing Pics