Dear Ella,
Baby frogs go through some pretty big changes to become grown-up frogs. They start out as tiny tadpoles with just a head and a tail to help them swim. Tadpoles can’t hear yet, though they can sense vibrations in water.
But as they change from tadpoles to frog-shaped bodies, through a process called metamorphosis, their ears develop and they can begin to hear their moms. We don’t know if they can tell if it’s their own mother or if they think it is just another frog in the pond.
I hopped on over to visit my friend Jesse Brunner at Washington State University to find out more about it. Brunner is a scientist who studies health in communities of amphibians and works with frogs.