Sometimes a person will build a pond in their back yard, and a little while later find a frog and some frogspawn in it.
But there might not be another pond or body of water around for some distance.
It’s not like the frogs got a smartphone update telling them there’s a new pond 100 metres away in such-and-such a direction.
So this suggests frogs are constantly wandering around waterless pond-less environments all the time unobserved, and that some are lucky enough to happen across ponds to live in?
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For most frogs, the adult doesn’t need a pond, he only requires one to breed, which doesn’t happen until a few years into his lifespan. In those years, the teenage frog can cover a large distance on foot in search of safe, moist habitats with many insects and slugs to eat (areas with shady vegetation and many places like piles of wood to hide and hibernate are ideal). Since all the other frogs do that too, chances are some of them stumble across the garden with the new pond. Once they’re close to the water, they can sense it. They do that by smelling but maybe also because the insects near a pond are different from the fully terrestrial ones, and frogs are experts about insects. Frogs are pretty good at navigating and will be able to remember there is a body of water in that place, even if they continue wandering away again. Once the frog is old enough to mate, he will migrate to a known body of water. That may be his original ancestral water or a different one, like this new pond. The males will then attract the females to this water by making noise. After mating, most of these frogs will leave the pond to go back to their terrestrial life in shady vegetation eating insects and slugs. Only some have the preference to stay near or in the pond, including to hibernate, and those are the frogs you spot in ponds year round. They actually live a minority lifestyle!
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