Frog Identity

[BellyDraggers]

Hi All

I was driving along one of the side roads by my house (I live in Port Perry Ontario). I was looking around and caught a glimpse of a black figure in the middle of the road. We pulled over to see what the dark figure was and then noticed that it was a frog of some kind we are not sure and where hope that you could identify what species it is.. We think it to be a Bull frog but the colours are confusing us, we have never seen these colours before on any of the frogs in our area...

http://publish.hometown.aol.com/bellydraggerreps/images/unknown%20frog1.jpg

http://publish.hometown.aol.com/bellydraggerreps/images/unknown%20frog4.jpg


Any help would be great..
thanks

[snakehunter]

could be a female bull, or a really dark green.

[reptiledude21]

just looks like a normal bullfrog to me

[Dozer]

Surely looks like a different colored phased frog. However, I would settle in it being a green frog because the tympanic membranes are smaller then the eyes. If the tympanic membranes are larger then the eyes, that indictates a Bullfrog.

I hope I have my facts straight :p

Mike

[Jeff Hathaway]

Scotty,

Since I'm posting here, I won't reply to your email. The frog you photographed is a green frog (Rana clamitans). The presence of dorsolateral skin folds (which run from the tympanum back to the legs on both sides) confirms that it is a green and not a bull. Bullfrogs (Rana catesbiana) do not have dorsolateral folds. The colouration is quite dark but not unusual. This is the age old problem of common names, especially those describing colour/ pattern. Green frogs can be green, brown, green & brown, or even black. Bullfrogs can also be green, brown, green & brown, or black. Colour is not a useful way to differentiate them.

Mink frogs (Rana septentrionalis) can confuse the issue, but you wouldn't start finding them unless you went a bit farther north. They are very similar to greens, and can be quite difficult to distinguish without capturing them for a close examination.

Dozer- if the tympanum is larger than the eye, it is a male. If it's the same size as the eye, it is a female. This is not a way to distinguish bullfrogs from any other species.

Cheers,

Jeff Hathaway
Sciensational Sssnakes!!

[BellyDraggers]

Thanks Jeff, and everyone else....

:-)

Cheers

[snakegal12345]

american bullfrog

[Bartman]

i saw one exactly like that at my cottage...almost ran him over with the mower..thankfully my dad spotted him/her