Here in the South American rainforest, you're watching what should be a joyous event, the laying of hundreds of eggs by a mother frog. In truth, only a very few of these eggs will blossom into full frogdom. Drought will take a toll, and predators will menace these babies at every step of their development. Some clever moms lay their eggs in trees, foiling the predators below. Take a look at some super close-up micro-camera footage of a frog taking the journey from egg to tadpole. Here captured on film is the miracle of life. When the tadpoles outgrow the birth chamber, they have to find another source of water fast. Of course, mom took care of everything. She laid her eggs above a jungle pool. Suddenly they are no longer big tadpoles in a self-contained micro-pond. Now they are tiny tadpoles in a huge body of water where their bodies and legs develop quickly. Predators lurk everywhere, like this water bug for instance. It's a simple deadly transaction. It shoots its venom in, then sucks the life out. The survivors like this one will soon lose their tadpole tails and be able to scramble up on land, but they will continue to live in the water where they first high dived into the world and began their astonishing adventure.
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