Facts and Features of African Clawed Frog

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class : Amphibia

Order: Anura

Family : Pipidae

Genre : Xenopus

Scientific Name : Xenopus laevis

Common Name : African Clawed Frog

Other Name( s ) : Platanna

Group: Amphibian

Number of species : 1

Location: Eastern and Southern Africa

Habitat : stagnant waters with grasses

Color type: Brown , Gray , Albino

Skin : Permeable Scales

Size ( L ) : 2.7 cm - 12 cm (1 inch - 4.5in )

Weight: 27 g - 220 g (1 oz - 8 oz )

Maximum speed : 9 km / h ( 5 mph )

Diet : Carnivore

Prey : small fish , insects , spiders

Attackers :birds , small mammals

Lifestyle : Nocturnal

Group behavior : Solitary

Type of water : Fresh

Duration of the life : 8-15 years

Sexual maturity : 10-12 months

Incubation period : 4-5 days

Average Spawn Size : 2000

Name Of Young : tadpole

Age Of Independance : 5 days

Life Status : Least Concern

Size of the population estimated : Abundant

Major threatens : it water pollution

Different feature :Clawed front legs

Funny facts : A particularly dangerous amphibian !

Classification and Evolution of African Clawed Frog

The African Clawed Frog is a generously proportioned species of plane Frog which is primarily found dwelling by the side of the substructure of lakes and rivers. The African Clawed Frog is besides famous as the Platanna and has a quantity of very unique characteristics with the aim of mean it is especially adapted to it's environment. The African Clawed Frog is thought to be originated from South Africa, and is at the moment found unpretentiously across the African continent. The African Clawed Frog has besides been introduced to the Americas and parts of Europe.

Anatomy and Appearance of African Clawed Frog

The usual adult African Clawed Frog grows to not more than 12 cm in measurement lengthwise, and weighs around 200g.The African Clawed Frog is generally green, grey colour despite other colour combination of the African Clawed Frog are not uncommon (such as albino).The colour of the African Clawed Frog's skin, along with it's speckled pattern, gives it more mask from hungry predators.They maintain a line of stitch-marks along their bodies which directs as an sense organs to detect prey in the surrounding stream. Their eyes and nose are located on top of the head enabling them to find out and breathe but not including being too visible.

Distribution and Habitat of African Clawed Frog

The African Clawed Frog is commonly found in eastern and southern Africa, along the African Rift Valley where they like better stagnant waters to fast-flowing streams. African Clawed Frogs are bottom-dwelling animals and will solitary leave the safety of the stream if they are strained to migrate. They inhabit cheery shallow creeks and rivers throughout the summer and move into the flooded forests throughout the raining season. Due to introduction by Humans, the African Clawed Frog can be found in numerous freshwater habitats outside of Africa someplace they can be a very insidious species.

Behaviour of African Clawed Frog

The African Clawed Frog spends its life in stream, excluding in place of poking its head up to the emerge from schedule to schedule to breathe. The African Clawed Frog can swim by the side of astonishing speeds sideways, backwards, forwards, up and down, and in all other ways. It is an unruly killer and once upon a time food has been marked, the African Clawed Frog after that catches it's prey using it's claws, which goes it into the African Clawed Frog's mouth. The African Clawed Frog has evolved very successfully as a bottom-dwelling inborn,with the aim of it has greater protection from predators and a better high-quality of food.

Reproduction and Life Cycles of African Clawed Frog

Female African Clawed Frogs are often double by two the size of the males, and are able to have children more than once in a year. After mating, the female African Clawed Frog can lay thousands of eggs by the side of a schedule on an underground water object, which are held mutually in the stream by a jelly-like substance. After hatching, the African Clawed Frog tadpoles arise their life in the stream until they grow legs and are able to venture barred against the watercourse banks if need be. The African Clawed Frog is famous to maintain a long lifespan in place of small aquatic animals, and can live to around 5 to 15 years in the wild. Some adult African Clawed Frogs maintain been found to  have life period virtually 30 years old.

Diet and Prey of African Clawed Frog 

The African Clawed Frog is a carnivorous inborn and predators inside it's water world. The African Clawed Frog's major food are Water Bugs and small Fish but the African Clawed Frog is besides famous to take it's own skin each time as food when it is shed. African Clawed Frogs besides hunt other small invertebrates such as Insects, Spiders and Worms, which it catches to mouth using it's clawed front feet. African Clawed Frogs in captivity maintain a much smaller amount varied diet which initially collections of Worms.

Predators and Threats of African Clawed Frog

Miniature mammals like Rodents, Cats and Dogs, and numerous Birds and Reptiles, all prey on the African Clawed Frog, but herons are most dangers for them. By living on the bottom mud surfaces of lakes and rivers, the African Clawed Frog can continue safely hidden in place of much time, and solitary it's eyes and nose appear beyond the water-line whilst it surfaces. Although not as vulnerable as many other amphibians, the African Clawed Frog is besides being threatened by stream pollution.

Interesting Facts and Features of African Clawed Frog

The African Clawed Frog are popular of their unique feet, as their back feet are webbed but their front legs maintain clawed toes as a substitute, which are used to help take food into their mouths.In the past 1940s ,the African Clawed Frog became the world's basic pregnancy test rather than humans, which although barbaric, has led to them being found worldwide at the moment. The African Clawed Frog has besides been a widely held test subject matter in science.They are famous to be highly aggressive animals and particularly unruly amphibians.

Relationship with Humans of African Clawed Frog

Over the years, Humans maintain to find out a quantity of uses of the African Clawed Frog in our daily life.The nearly everyone notable (and probably cruellest) of these practices was of the African Clawed Frog females as a type of pregnancy test.The hormone produced by Human babies (passed on through the mother's urine) famous as HCG,reduces ovulation in the female African Clawed Frog. Humans besides wear out them in laboratories worldwide in place of explore and philosophy. Habitat loss and stream pollution reasoned major effect on African Clawed Frog populations.

Conservation Status of African Clawed Frog

Although it has been classified as being by the side of Least Concern from imminent extinction, population statistics fallen in some areas due to deteriorating water quality. Elsewhere, African Clawed Frog populations around the earth often happen to non-native pests to the confined plants and wildlife.