They may travel several hundred yards, and some may live 20 years or more. Their eggs hatch into gilled, predatory larvae that readily devour small invertebrates and even the tadpoles of frogs. The number of frogs and salamanders using a small wetland can be astounding. I once spent three months studying the amphibians using a half-acre sinkhole pond near Brewton. These animals spend most of their lives some distance from water, most of them underground.
Amphibians are without question a vital link in the vertebrate food chain.
Some of our frogs and toads have been documented moving more than a mile from their breeding ponds. These snakes are in turn preyed on by foxes, hawks, bobcats, and other predators. The loss of such a wetland can affect wildlife populations a considerable distance away. Management Needs Temporary ponds should be recognized as important and productive ecosystems that best serve their natural function when left undisturbed. Landowners who have temporary ponds are often tempted to deepen them to stock game fish or to water cattle.