Butler library raising tadpoles for spring project
Children can learn about yet another animal’s life cycle at the Butler Area Public Library this spring, and not just from books, but from a water-filled tank in the children’s section.
Tiffany Harkleroad, youth services librarian at the library, got tadpoles to raise at the library last week, and they will be on display in her department until they develop into frogs in about 12 to 16 weeks.
Harkleroad previously hatched quail chicks in the library, and last spring raised caterpillars into butterflies. This frog project, she said, is probably the most unique animal project yet.
“I wanted to do something really different,” Harkleroad said. “It’s already been quite different than anything we’ve done before ... It’s a much longer process; they’ll be here the whole summer.”
Since the leopard frogs Harkleroad got for the library are not native to Pennsylvania, the library will adopt the frogs out once they are fully matured. Harkleroad said she might have a naming contest where people can submit names for the two frogs.
Although she only obtained the tadpoles a little more than a week ago, Harkleroad said the polliwogs have already grown substantially, and they are going to the surface for air more often than when they arrived. Over the coming weeks, the polliwogs’ tails will be absorbed into their bodies and they will start sprouting legs in place of their gills.
Harkleroad said the metamorphosis from tadpole to frogs will probably be interesting to children.
“I am kind of interested to see how the kids react to such big, multiple-stage changes,” Harkleroad said. “I’m interested to see how the kids who come in regularly respond when they start to grow their legs.”
The tadpoles’ small tank is small and pretty empty for now, but Harkleroad said she will put some more materials in for the occupants to latch onto as they progress into more land-based creatures.
“We’ll put a big rock in there so they can have dry land, but at that point, they’ll still have their tails,” Harkleroad said. “So over the next few days, their body will slowly absorb that tail as nutrition, so we won’t have to feed them anything during that period.”
The long wait for the tadpoles to become fully grown frogs doesn’t bother Harkleroad, because she said she is also interested in seeing how the animal changes over its lifetime. She said she also wants to demonstrate to children through the annual spring project that they can be involved in nature as they grow up as well.
“I learn a lot myself when doing these activities,” Harkleroad said. “I think that it’s good for kids to see that model of grown-ups continuing to learn.”
