One to three years!?!?!

A few weeks ago, Benjamin came home with a trio of bullfrog tadpoles...and a teeny little salamander that he didn't mean to catch but accidentally scooped up with the tadpoles (and which we'll return to the wild once we can catch it...because while frogs are fine to keep, salamanders aren't...it keeps getting away from us though).

He asked if he could keep the tadpoles. 

Why not? They'll grow legs and hop off in the next few weeks and that'll be that. Right?

Riiiiight?

These tadpoles, however, are showing no sign of development. At all. 

No facial developments. No little leg nubs. Nothing. 

We've raised tadpoles into frogs before. It was pretty straightforward: (1) watch them grow (2) done. So I couldn't really figure out what we were doing wrong. 

He's been keeping them in pond water. They're eating algae and bug larvae. They're all alive...

So, I type into my trusty web browser: "How long do bullfrog tadpoles take to turn into frogs?"

The answer? One to three years. 

(Eight years in this case).

And, uh, pardon my French, but...pourquoi?

I did not realize the commitment these little guys were. By my calculations we should have been about ready to ship them off to froggy college, but noooooo! Apparently they're a long-term gig. So Benjamin will either be schlepping water from the pond for much longer than he anticipated (or he'll simply schlep these guys back to the pond and let them finish growing up there).

Also, another thing I just learned...

Apparently bullfrog eggs hatch into tadpoles within four days of being laid. 

What. Kind. Of. Sorcery. Is. That?

Other frogs take weeks in the egg stage. And then spend weeks metamorphosing. 

Not bullfrogs. 

They take days to hatch from eggs and then spend years metamorphosing.

*****

"Did you do any research on raising bullfrogs?" I asked Benjamin.

"Not really," he said. "I just knew you'd raised frogs before so..."

"Apparently bullfrogs are different from other frogs," I said.

"I should do some research then," he said. 

"Yeah, you probably should," I said. 

A few minutes later he came running back to me exclaiming, "One to three years!!?!?!"