Tadpoles in Caw Caw County Park

On our recent field trip to Caw Caw County Park, we set up many traps just to see what sort of herps we could find out in the wild. My personal favorite herp that we caught was the Pig frog tadpole, Lithobates grylio. I honestly have never seen a tadpole outside of textbooks, so it was really interesting for me to see one, especially one that was so large (around two inches long). These tadpoles were found in the swampy part of the park where the traps were placed. Pig frog tadpoles are easily identified by the black color on the underside of their chin. Although I couldn’t identify if the tadpole was male or female, I could tell that it was beginning to go through metamorphosis because tiny forelimbs had started to appear. The tadpole was a very active swimmer in the small container of water that we placed it in before releasing it back into the wild. Most tadpoles are herbivorous or omnivorous in their diet. However, adult pig frogs normally consume insects and crustaceans instead of plant material. The pictures below are of the two tadpoles we found on the field trip and of an adult pig frog.