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Just-Hatched Froglets, Papua New Guinea, 2001

Photo: Frog guarding a clutch of newly hatched froglets

Carrying out his fatherly duty, a male Oreophryne frog in Papua, New Guinea, guards his clutch and two newly hatched froglets that rest atop the egg mass. Like many of the Microhylidae family, these frogs bypass the tadpole stage, developing fully within the egg. Male frogs embrace their clutch each night to keep the eggs moist and protect them from predators such as insects.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Fragile World of Frogs," May 2001, National Geographic magazine)

Photograph by George Grall