Hannah’s videos ‘spawn’ new online phenomenon

A CLANABOGAN girl who is spending lockdown looking after around 37,000 tadpoles in her back garden has become an online sensation with her fascinating videos of her baby frogs.

Hannah McSorley (17) has found online fame on Tik Tok after she brought home frogspawn, and began documenting their growth on her account called @.baby.frogs.

The Loreto Grammar School student has around 37,000 tadpoles and is looking after them in a container filled with water, silt, rocks and mud.

Speaking to the Tyrone Herald, Hannah explained that collecting frogspawn is a tradition in her home, and she hadn’t expected her hobby to become so popular.

She said, “When I was younger, it was sort of a tradition every year to get a little jar of frog spawn.

“This year, I posted a video of it on Tik Tok and it went viral.

“So I kept posting videos each day, and the popularity of it continued to grow.

“It was just a little jar at the start but then there was one day I was outside and noticed a big puddle of frog spawn that were about to dry up.

“The water level had dropped a lot as we had been having a spell of good dry weather so I took the tadpoles home in a big bag and put them into a container to give them space to grow.

“Things have been progressing since then,” said Hannah.

Since she started documenting the process on Tik Tok, she has received over seven million likes and 500,000 followers.

She continued, “I have a big following on Tik Tok now, but I never expected so many people to be interested in tadpoles.

“I can see why people would become fascinated in them though – I am so fascinated with them myself and how they grow,” said Hannah.

Unfortunately, some of the tadpoles will die before reaching maturity, showing up as little white dots in the frogspawn, but so far, very few have succumbed.

Hannah is looking forward to seeing the tadpoles develop into frogs.

She continued, “Any year I have done this, I have only ever seen the tadpoles.

“I have never had the success of raising frog spawn, to tadpoles to frogs so I am hoping that it will be different this year.

“Once they get their legs and arms, I will be releasing them in batches around different ponds and streams. My mother loves them too, and my younger brother is interested in them and he does help me make the videos.

“It has been keeping me busy during lockdown,” concluded Hannah.

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