Go back to:

Frog (Bullfrog)

To view these resources with no ads, please Login or Subscribe to help support our content development.

School subscriptions can access more than 175 downloadable unit bundles in our store for free (a value of $1,500).

District subscriptions provide huge group discounts for their schools. Email for a quote: sheri@exploringnature.org.

Rana catesbeiana

Range

They are found in the eastern part of Southern Canada and the U.S. through the Midwest to the Rocky Mountains and south to Mexico.

Habitat

They live in marshes, lakes, ponds and streams. They are usually found among the cattails or other water plants.

Body Traits

They are the largest frogs in the U.S., reaching up to 8" long. They are olive-green to brown in color with darker spots on their backs and legs. They have large eardrums (tympanic membranes) behind their eyes. Their eardrum is bigger than their eye in males and the same size as their eye in females.

Habits

They live in the water, sitting with just their eyes and nostrils above the surface. They are often among the plant life that grows out of the water near the edges of ponds and lakes.

Diet

They will eat anything they can fit in their large mouths, including baby ducks, snakes, turtles, bats, other frogs, insects and fish.

Predators

They are eaten as tadpoles by every other meat-eating animal in or on the pond, including snapping turtles, herons and raccoons.

To view these resources with no ads, please Login or Subscribe to help support our content development.

School subscriptions can access more than 175 downloadable unit bundles in our store for free (a value of $1,500).

District subscriptions provide huge group discounts for their schools. Email for a quote: sheri@exploringnature.org.

Reproduction

Males call to attract a mate and mark their territory. One female can lay thousands of eggs in a jelly mass in shallow water. The tadpoles are very large and spotted.

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Ranidae
Genus: Rana
Species: Rana catesbeiana

Citing Research References

When you research information you must cite the reference. Citing for websites is different from citing from books, magazines and periodicals. The style of citing shown here is from the MLA Style Citations (Modern Language Association).

When citing a WEBSITE the general format is as follows.
Author Last Name, First Name(s). "Title: Subtitle of Part of Web Page, if appropriate." Title: Subtitle: Section of Page if appropriate. Sponsoring/Publishing Agency, If Given. Additional significant descriptive information. Date of Electronic Publication or other Date, such as Last Updated. Day Month Year of access < URL >.