The water covering the ground gradually drained and evaporated away, slowly enough that
the swarms of tadpoles had a chance to make the transition to a more terrestrial lifestyle. Many of them still had a lot of growing left to do, though.
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| A toadling in the leaf litter. |
As I walked through the forest, I kept sending waves of tiny toads hopping for cover.
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| A closer view of the toadling. |
They were so small and well camouflaged in the leaf litter that they would easily have been overlooked if they had just remained still.
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| Another toadling blending in with the leaf litter. |
However, the toadlings on the path through the woods faced a different problem. They could not hop quite enough. The raised edge of the trail proved too high an obstacle for their small legs, trapping them until they found some place to squeeze through.
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| A toadling thwarted by the edging of the trail. |
