It’s the Age of the Frogs in my Giant Rainforest Vivaria. Frogs are keystone animals, vital to healthy ecosystems, and I felt my three tropical, rainforest vivariums, Pantdora, Orchadia, and Hydromeda needed more frogs. So I added them, and in the process, witnessed something truly new and mind-blowing that I didn’t know about frogs. Hope you enjoy this Season 4, Episode 12 of my Ecosystem Vivarium Series. Ant love forever!

I Released FROGS Into My Giant Rainforest Vivariums

This is my giant tropical wetlands

vivarium called Hydromeda, containing a semi-aquatic ecosystem of life.

My giant rainforest floor vivarium called Pandora, with its own exotic terrestrial ecosystem,

and Arcadia, my giant canopy vivarium hosting its unique treetop ecosystem.

The purpose of these ecosystem vivaria is to study the dynamics of wild ecosystems.

And currently, Pandora and Arcadia are connected via a glass bridge.

But Hydromeda’s bridge, currently under construction, will also be completed very soon,

joining all these massive slices of nature together—

which is when a whole new chapter of fun begins.

But before the great connection event,

one of the things I felt was lacking in the ecosystems were frogs.

Currently, only Arcadia hosts some tree frogs.

But in the wild, frogs are abundant and play vital roles in healthy ecosystems.

And so, I felt it was time to add more frogs into our forest and waterways.

Come, my froggies. It’s time for you to shine.

The age of the frogs has begun.

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Welcome to the AC fam.

Enjoy!

I placed Beyoncé onto the leaf litter of the Pandora forest floor.

She stopped unmoving as she slowly realized she was somewhere completely new.

“Now this is different,” she thought to herself.

Beyoncé is a chubby frog, a terrestrial frog native to tropical Southeast Asia, where I currently live.

Believe it or not, she popped out of the soils of one of my house plants 8 months ago during last year’s rainy season.

I captured her as well as another male, whom I’ve named Jay-Z,

who also emerged from my house plants and placed them into a holding tank.

You see, these frogs bury themselves underground during dry periods and emerge after heavy rainfall to emit calls and breed.

During the rainy season, they can be found everywhere outside my home, even in the streets,

and are great climbers, often making their way up into the trees,

where they can eat insects—especially termites and ants—

but basically anything they can fit into their mouths.

I really wanted to add these chubby frogs into our rainforest for the longest time

because our rainforest ecosystem had everything they could ever need, including a ton of ants and termites.

But at the time of capture, 8 months ago, Godzilla, a baby caiman, had recently settled into the forest,

and I felt it kind of wasn’t fair to introduce the frogs,

as I knew they’d likely get eaten by the croc.

But we moved Godzilla out last week,

so it was finally time for the frogs to be released.

And Beyoncé here was first.

She had one thing on her mind right now: food.

Ants were all around her.

But the funny thing about frogs is—they’re big gluttons

and will often try to go for the biggest prey they believe to be possible, even if it’s too big.

As you can see, I’ve definitely been feeding Beyoncé well,

so I couldn’t imagine her fitting anything large into her belly,

but I couldn’t wait to watch her hunt.

Little did I know I would soon be witnessing something truly new and amazing

that I didn’t know about frogs, that would blow my mind.

Something to the side caught her attention.

The movement of a cricket triggered her peripheral vision, and she went in for the kill.

She moved in—and airballed—missed by a long shot.

This is how you know she’s full. That wasn’t even close.

It’s all good.

There are plenty more prey for her to eat in this forest.

She spotted another group of crickets.

She moved in.

The crickets had no idea a beast was approaching.

And then another movement distracted her, and she changed course.

Like a T-Rex, movement stimulates her hunger response—

and missed again.

An acrobat ant came along and pop! she ate that one easily,

but she was a frog on a mission.

My guess was that during times of slim pickings,

she would be much less choosy with food options and start eating the little ants around her.

It’s been a while since she’s seen prey this large, so she was going for the big fish.

Missed that one.

Now one of the cool things about chubby frogs is they’re a crawling frog.

Still capable of hopping but prefer to crawl and climb.

It seems her tongue touches the crickets,

but they failed to stick due to being too large.

I watched as her eyes locked onto another target as she continued to stalk.

The cricket instinctively froze when it realized something large had approached.

And just like a T-Rex, if you keep still, it can’t see you.

Beyoncé changed course, having lost sight of the cricket.

Keep still and don’t move a muscle.

The moment was tense.

But Beyoncé lost the staring match and sent the cricket fleeing.

It was pretty amazing watching this chubby frog hunt.

Though admittedly she wasn’t very good at catching these large crickets.

Although her batting average isn’t very good at the moment while out hunting,

she will continue to be an eating machine,

greatly impacting the existing invertebrates in their environment.

For this reason, like caiman, frogs are also considered keystone species,

playing a vital role in their ecosystems, serving as both predators and prey.

Their presence significantly impacts the health and balance of the environment.

And I knew adding Beyoncé to Pandora would definitely shape its ecosystem in a significant way.

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Here is the continued corrected and aligned transcription, preserving all original words:

I continued to watch, spellbound,

as she continued to hunt for any and all crickets she saw moving around her.

Heat. Heat.

Oh dear.

I wanted to add the male Jay-Z in as well,

but I was holding off on introducing him because, well,

I also really wanted to add a frog into Hydromeda and felt—

wouldn’t it be cool if we could add Jay-Z to Hydromeda,

and once the bridge was complete, he could call to Beyoncé come rainy season

and lure her across the bridge to come to Hydromeda where they could spawn?

However, there was one other frog that I felt might also be a good candidate for Hydromeda’s lush east island.

Meet Jaba the Hut, my Surinam horned frog, which some classify as a type of Pac-Man frog.

Now, I acquired him 6 years ago, back in 2019.

Every year he swims out into the waters of his enclosure and croaks in search of a female to mate with.

Now horned frogs can live up to 10 years with appropriate care,

but the average is more like 6 or 7 years,

and he was already 4 years old when I got him,

which means Jaba here, as a 10-year-old horned frog, is very, very old.

In human years, he’d be over a hundred if my math is correct.

He’s been super easy to care for, eating frog pellets his entire time under my care

and has been living in this same smallish and simple wetlands home I’ve named Pacmania ever since I got him.

He literally has lived nowhere else but here.

But he’s quite happy with his home.

You see, these frogs are a sit-and-wait type of predator,

literally staying in the same spot and waiting for prey to scuttle by.

They’re ambush predators, not really a hunting species like Beyoncé,

and therefore prefer a simple home like Pacmania.

I’m not sure what I’ve been doing that has kept him so healthy all these years,

but this, AC Family, is where I have a bit of a problem.

Let me know what you think.

So, I’ve been toying with the idea of possibly moving him into Hydromeda,

which is basically a massive version of the wetlands tank he’s in now.

Like Pacmania, Hydromeda has water, tons of moss, soil, and plants growing all around.

Hydromeda would have plenty of cool snug places into which Jaba could snuggle cozily and just plant himself.

Plus, most of the life in Hydromeda are native to South America, and so are Pac-Man frogs,

which would make Hydromeda a cool and unified South American biotope if we did decide to add him in.

But another voice inside of me is from the school of thought of—if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

He’s been doing so well for years in this current setup.

What if Jaba, who isn’t quite the spring chicken anymore, doesn’t adapt well to the new environment of Hydromeda?

What if he experiences agoraphobia from the sudden open space he’s never before experienced and just dies from stress?

He was, after all, my pet frog,

and I was a bit reluctant to just integrate him into this unpredictable and sometimes hostile biological project.

So perhaps Jay-Z would have been a better choice for Hydromeda.

But before I could go ahead and add Jay-Z in,

something truly incredible happened that showed me exactly what the frogs wanted.

The hunt continued, and a giant trap-jaw ant was approaching Beyoncé.

Oh man. Now this ant was definitely more bite-sized for her.

I watched the scene. She currently had her eyes locked on another target,

but I knew all it took was the ant to cross her peripherals.

Oh! It got away. Lucky for this ant.

I continued to watch the frog hunt. I was quite spellbound by her beauty.

What a stunning frog.

Suddenly, she crawled up to the glass and attempted to eat some crickets again.

As she paused, I noticed springtails emerging from the soil beneath her.

Man, Pandora’s soil life was just so diverse and healthy.

And suddenly, she spotted me staring at her through the glass.

And for a moment, we made eye contact.

She didn’t even care about the nomad carrying another ant passing by.

She could have had a twofer.

Suddenly, she began to move.

What are you doing, Beyoncé? You trying to tell me something, girl?

She continued to stare at me through the glass.

And then a thought came to me.

I wondered if she was missing Jay-Z, her partner frog,

with whom she had lived for 8 months in her holding tank.

But then I thought, nah, this was my human lens just imagining things.

These frogs aren’t even communal except for the brief period when breeding.

Normally, they’re solitary frogs.

And I mean, seriously speaking, I don’t think amphibians can feel love for one another.

Right, Beyoncé?

She turned away to continue on her trek.

But then the thought continued to bug me.

What if she did miss Jay-Z and was looking for him?

What do I know about what a frog truly feels?

They’d be reunited anyway come breeding season several months from now.

If I did put Jay-Z into Hydromeda, surely the frogs could wait several months of separation.

And like I said, frogs do not form bonds like that.

It was at that moment that an idea came to me.

Actually, I didn’t know for a fact if Beyoncé and Jay-Z weren’t bonded.

So we could actually test the frogs and find out.

I could try placing Jay-Z into Pandora,

and with the space being so large,

I could probably be able to tell right away if the frogs were bonded and “quote unquote” needed each other around

if I saw them wandering the forest together.

If the two frogs just went on with their separate lives

and wandered the forest away from each other, then we’d see it.

And this would make my choice in deciding on a frog for Hydromeda much easier.

Because if the two frogs weren’t bonded,

then I could just catch Jay-Z and relocate him to Hydromeda,

and both frogs would be emotionally okay with that.

But if the two frogs did show any signs of a love bond,

then I could simply keep both frogs in Pandora

and can go ahead with moving our Jaba the Hut into Hydromeda.

It was an experiment that I was certain we’d be able to learn a lot from.

So let’s do it.

I placed Jay-Z into the leaf litter.

He immediately hopped away. Guess he was spooked.

And what happened next made my heart stop.

Beyoncé turned when she sensed a movement beyond.

Science can help us make educated guesses

or seemingly definitive statements on our understanding of the world, including that of animals.

Though chubby frogs are solitary animals in the wild,

it was clear that Beyoncé was happy to see Jay-Z here in Pandora.

We’ll never really know if frogs can feel love,

but to me, this was frog love if I ever saw it.

Not even food could distract Beyoncé now.

There was definitely a bond between these two frogs.

I watched as Beyoncé took a shortcut around the wood to meet Jay-Z.

She had a good grasp of these lands already—

lands that would be their new home together.

“Wait up, will you?” Beyoncé called out.

Jay-Z turned to face Beyoncé,

and together they crawled into the vegetation to hunt for food as a pair.

The decision was clear.

I would keep the two frogs together in Pando—

And so, it was time for Hydromeda to welcome home its new Pac-Man frog.

The baby strawberry Pac-Man frog clung onto the mossy bank of Hydromeda’s east island.

So guys, I came to the decision that Jaba would not be moving into Hydromeda.

It was just too risky for me to experiment on, and the frog was happy where he was.

So I felt it was best to not change a thing.

But as a compromise, I actually also own two project frogs that I’ve been rehabilitating.

I noticed these baby strawberry Pac-Man frogs at a pet store that had a calcium deficiency.

See the gaping mouths? I’m sure it wasn’t the pet store’s fault but perhaps their supplier.

Who knows? But I knew they needed special care—particularly for feeding and diet—

and would die if they didn’t receive it.

So I decided to take these two in under my care

and have been training them to feed on Jaba the Hut’s frog pellets,

which contained a good amount of calcium in it.

And so far, the rehab process seems to be working well.

So I decided to try putting one of them in Hydromeda.

At least she was young and could learn to adapt to Hydromedan life.

She crawled up out of the water, taking in the vast world around her—

a glorious kingdom she had never known,

a world built perfectly for frogs like her.

She was excited to begin exploring, like her ancestors did 250 million years ago,

in the early Triassic period, when the first frog crawled out of the waters.

I felt as though I was watching a scene of prehistory

that had repeated through time again and again in beautiful order.

It’s amazing to think that an animal like the frog

has remained relatively unchanged in design all these hundreds of millions of years,

living a double life in both water and land.

Her strawberry color was perfect at making her stand out among the greenery.

I needed her to be easy to find for when I needed to feed her pellets next.

And turns out, she ended up choosing the coolest spot to station herself—

right on top of this mossy hill.

This was the perfect spot because I could easily reach her,

and hopefully by the time the glass bridge is connected and more insects come her way,

she’ll have been rehabilitated enough to catch prey on her own.

The strong UV lighting in Hydromeda would also help her create more vitamin D3

and help her bones better calcify.

What should we name her, AC Family? Let me know in the comments.

I was happy that not only did Arcadia have its resident frogs,

but now Pandora and Hydromeda did.

I expect all frogs will end up in Hydromeda at some point to breed when they’re ready—

after the glass bridge to Hydromeda was complete.

Speaking of breeding,

I’ve decided to start looking for a female for Jaba,

so at least someone can finally appreciate his crooning,

and he can pass on his great hearty genes down to the next generation.

The age of the frogs was a great success.

In the future, I do hope to add more species of frogs,

as there are just so many different species that could work,

from which we could learn a lot.

Perhaps a toad species? Maybe even dart frogs?

Or how about a red-eyed tree frog or others?

Frogs are truly one of nature’s most underrated creatures on the planet.

We need frogs, and benefit more than we realize from their existence on the planet.

There was, however, still one issue: the size of prey insects.

The chubby frogs can’t eat adult crickets nor roaches.

Only Snap the sunsk is able to eat them,

but he has a bit of a problem keeping up with the supply.

There were huntsman spiders in the rainforest,

but they too weren’t enough to keep up with the growing populations of larger prey insects.

Normally, Godzilla helped eat a lot of adult crickets and roaches in the forest,

but now that he was gone, once the prey insects reached adulthood,

they were pretty much safe and free to breed unchecked—

primarily up in the canopy.

Not even the tree frogs of Arcadia were large enough to eat the adult crickets nor the roaches.

And so, AC Family, I felt it was time to find a predator that could.

And I think you guys will love my choice for an apex treetop predator.

It was time for some new blood in our rainforest…

Warm blood.

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