Southern Cricket Frog!

Last week we visited the Donnelly Wildlife Management area. It was a great trip for me because I caught several Southern Cricket frogs! The first place we stopped was quite swampy with several feet of water and mud. In that mixture I waded around and was able to catch my first frog. After examining it we decided that it was indeed a Southern Cricket Frog, Acris gryllus, because its toes were only partially webbed. We also looked for the presence of anal warts and saw that this frog had them, again confirming our hypothesis that it was a Southern Cricket frog. This was a particularly beautiful Cricket frog with a long bright green stripe down its back. This frog, like most Cricket frogs, was quite small. His SVL was about 1/2 to 1 inch. We decided that this frog was a male because he had a rather large vocal pouch beneath the chin. This frog was an adult. Southern Cricket frogs typically breed in just about any type of freshwater habitat, be it permanent or temporary. The eggs are attached to stones or vegetation in the water. After a while the eggs hatch. The tadpoles live in their freshwater home for a while and eventually metamorphose into frogs when they reach a certain size.

One thing I particularly noticed about these frogs was what fast and far jumpers they are. I suppose that shouldn't have surprised me, but when I was trying to catch one that's all I could think of. Like I said, I found this frog in a small muddy pool on the side of the forest floor. When I finally caught my frog he was resting on a rotting log in the swampy pool. It was not surprising to find a Southern Cricket frog where we were because they are a frog of the lowlands, that can typically be found in bogs or ponds.
It was a great trip and I'm so glad that I finally caught a frog!
(Bess Pierce, Charleston, S.C.)