How Do Frogs Breathe?

Series Summary

Caring for a family pet requires basic care at home and regular visits to the veterinarian. An animal's health is important for it to maintain a good quality of life. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if a pet is as healthy as it can be. A veterinarian is able to assess animal health and treat frogs, snails and reptiles. In this free video series, a pet store employee provides information on frogs, snails and reptiles. Discover how frogs breathe, what snails eat and where reptiles lay their eggs. Learn more about these unusual pets in this free video series on pet care.

Video Transcript

"How do frogs breathe? Well, frogs have lungs, and they breathe through their nostrils, just like we do. They have a little nostril on the tip of their nose, and that's how they're going to get the majority of their oxygen, but frogs are also interesting, because they have, their skin is, it's permeable, which means that oxygen and water can pass through their skin, so what that can actually do, is when they're underwater, or submerged for long periods of time, they can actually skim a little bit of oxygen, out of that water, by allowing it to pass through their skin into their bloodstream. In fact, some species of frogs have huge folds of skin. As a matter of fact, there's a species of mountain toad, that is aquatic, lives under the water, in these high altitude lakes, with very low oxygen, but what their folds of skin do, is they catch oxygen and hold it, to be absorbed into the body, so they kind of have two ways of doing it, in a round about way. The drawback to this, is it also makes them very susceptible to toxins in the water, or other materials that can enter into their bloodstream very quickly, and very easily, through their permeable skin. It allows toxins that affect them very quickly, and very detrimentally, it also is why frogs are one of the biggest and first environmental indicators of environmental damage, because they are very, very delicate, when it comes to water, and things entering their bloodstream immediately, and causing immediate effects, and birth defects, and deaths, because of that, so for the most part, they breathe just like you and me, through their nose, but they do get a little bit of oxygen, right through their skin."