Know Your Michigan Frogs: Northern Leopard Frog
May 17, 2010
National Geographic’s Northern Leopard Frog page says that the range of the species:
…is most of northern North America, except on the Pacific Coast. They generally live near ponds and marshes, but will often venture into well-covered grasslands as well, earning them their other common name, the meadow frog.
Leopard frogs will eat just about anything they can fit in their mouths. They sit still and wait for prey to happen by, then pounce with their powerful legs. They eat beetles, ants, flies, worms, smaller frogs, including their own species, and even birds, and garter snakes.
They also note leopard frogs were once the most abundant and widespread frog species in North America, but that declines beginning in the 1970s have significantly reduced their numbers. The Michigan DNR’s Northern Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens) page says that the frogs have had a similar and equally mysterious decline in Michigan, making a sighting of them rare in may parts of the state where they were once common. For more pictures & information, see Rana pipiens at the UM Animal Diversity Web and Northern Leopard Frog on Wikipedia.
See this bigger in Eli’s Nature slideshow.
More Michigan frogs on Michigan in Pictures!