Bronze Frog

Like Deena said, today we went to Francis Marion National Forest and looked around for herps in the Ion Swamp. As we started on our hike, I saw something that looked like a strange root near a tree stump out of the corner of my eye and quickly realized that it was actually a snake. I am too much of a chicken to actually grab it but someone else in the class did and that will probably be the subject of another post.

Instead of catching snakes, I decided to put my dipnet to use and went to some ponds on both sides of the trail. In my first few dips, I caught nothing but leaves and mud. Throughout the trip my dips were getting more promising. I caught a couple crayfish and then, from the same pond, got a large gelatinous egg mass and a salamander in the larval stage.After a few more dips with nothing but more leaves and mud, I decided to move on to another pond. I caught a few more larval salamanders and was lucky enough to catch some more developed than the one pictured. I dipped there for a while but decided to go to an area with a deeper (a few feet deep) body of water and some downed trees. On the trees I saw a young Southeastern Five-Lined Skink (Eumeces inexpectatus) which is known for its bright blue tail. I also saw a couple Green Anoles (Anolis carolinensis), one green and one brown. I was not able to catch any of these because they were all extremely fast.

While standing in the same spot I decided to do some more dip netting and after making one swipe, a frog jumped from the bank to hide under a log, close to where my net was. I got it in the net and concluded, with the help of my classmates, that it was a Bronze Frog (Rana clamitans clamitans).
The frog was about 2.5 in. long and had a brown back with a white venter that had dark markings. The dorsolateral ridges did not extend to the groin and, instead, ended on the body. It is known to live in swamps and take shelter in logs which greatly explains why I found it where I did.

(James Helton, SC)