7 The Mystery of Too Many Legs

Chapter 7 THE MYSTERY OF TOO MANY LEGS "Look!" said Judy, pausing on the water-lily stem. She lifted the exoskeleton to get a better look. "Tadpoles with legs!" "Wowzers schnauzers!" said Andrew. "They've all got tails, but some of them have just hind legs. And some of them have all four legs." meep… "Few weeks after tadpole hatch from egg, hind legs begin to grow," said Thudd. "Later, front legs grow under skin, pop through skin.

Then tail begin to go away. Tadpole stop eating. Body turn tail into energy to use as food." "What's that?" asked Judy, pointing ahead. Through the murky water and blurry skeleton, it looked like two long, thin tree trunks were coming toward them. meep… "Legs of big bird," said Thudd. "Legs of heron. Heron eat lotsa fish. "But heron do favor for fish, too. Fish eggs stick to feet of heron. When heron fly to other pond or lake, carry fish eggs to new place." Judy shrugged. "As long as the heron isn't interested in bug-sized things," she said. "Woofers!" said Andrew, slipping down. He struggled to keep the exoskeleton over him and Judy and still hang on. "This stem is so slimy!" meep… "Stem covered with algae," said Thudd. "Tiny plants. Too small to see with eyes. "Algae not got leaves. Not got roots. But algae use energy from sun to make food. Same as other plants. Algae make water look green. Lotsa animals eat algae."

Thudd pointed to a lump that was crawling up another stem. "Snail eat algae," said Thudd. "Snail scrape off algae with thousands, thousands of tiny teeth." The water swarmed with swimmers—insects and wormy things and tadpoles and frogs. A long, flat, ribbon-like creature swam so close that it almost knocked Andrew and Judy's exoskeleton off the lily stem. "Cheese Louise!" said Judy. "What was that?"

meep… "Leech," said Thudd. The leech caught up with a small fish. It wrapped itself around the fish and held it tight. meep… "Leech sucking blood from fish," said Thudd. "When leech drink enough blood, leech let fish go." "Eeeeuw!" Judy shivered, pushing Andrew to move faster down the stem. "Leeches are vampires!" "Yoop! Yoop! Yoop!" said Thudd. "Leech saliva got special stuff to make bite not hurt while leech suck blood. Sometime big animal not know that leech biting. "Leech saliva got stuff to make blood flow fast." Suddenly frogs, lots of them, sped by their exoskeleton. "Holy moly!" said Andrew, lifting the skeleton for a better view. "There's a frog with six legs!" "And there's one with just three legs!" said Judy.

meep… "Short time ago, kids in Minnesota visit pond. Find lotsa frogs with lotsa problems. Some got too many legs. Some got no back legs. Some got just one eye. "Kids tell whole world that frogs got problems. Scientists investigate." "Why are bad things happening to the frogs?" asked Andrew. meep… "No one know for sure," said Thudd. "Could be lotsa things. "Could be kinda light from sun. Ultraviolet light hurt frog eggs. More ultraviolet light come from sun now. "Could be stuff that people use to kill bugs. Bug killers get into water. Frogs live in water. Breathe through skin. Bug killers get into frogs through skin. Do bad things, maybe.

"Animals called parasites live in water, too. Parasites gotta use other animals to live, to make babies. "Some kindsa parasite burrow into back end of tadpoles. Mess up place where frog legs grow. Make frog grow more legs sometimes. Sometimes no legs." "The poor frogs!" said Judy. meep… "Frog with leg problems have hard time catching food," said Thudd. "Easy for predator to catch, too." "We'll tell Uncle Al about all this," said Andrew as they crept carefully down the lily stem. "Maybe we can help save the frogs."