Frogs Abroad

While finishing my study abroad, my last few weeks my friend Samara from New Zealand and I decided to finish it with a couple more stops around Europe before I headed home and she went for another semester abroad but in Ireland. Our first stop was am Bodensee in Lake Konstanz. A beautiful lake town located right on the country line separating Germany and Switzerland. This town is a beach town where you can lay back relax. While walking around finding a nice area on the rocky shore before swimming, I actually was trying to find a bathroom and we saw a castle across the way. On the way to find relief I had to cross a giant moat that looked more like a marsh. As I looked down I saw frogs EVERYWHERE! There had to be 100 or so in just plain sight along the bridge path. I remember them all looking very similar so I would guess they were of similar species but they all ranged in size so they could have not been. I could not stray off the bridge or else I would have gotten in trouble and also who would want to ruin the view of all the frogs for everyone else. Some were swimming and some were just chilling. I took a couple of pictures and from the close up the frogs look like they belongs to the family Ranidae, true frogs, from dorsolateral ridges, long legs, webbed toes and free fingers and a long waist.  Looking up genus and species I believe based on its appearance and distribution that most of the frogs were Pelophylax kl. eculentus, also called either the edible frog or the common water frog.

Being that this was the middle of July and im Bodensee it was not really humid, I would not think it was a mating period but by the number of them around who knows! In reality they could have been because Pelophylax kl. eculentus reproduce in water holes, swamps and pond and have breeding season that can last up to two months. The males, during this time, show somewhat of a singing battle where they each sit on rocks that are covered with algae and just make calls over one another. When a female approaches some males actually sing to one another and see who can get the highest pitch and who does wins the females heart. So since when I saw them some were just sitting and others were wandering in the water with a lot of calls being made, I could have been observing them during their breeding season. 

It was really cool just seeing these guys just out in the open creating a show for the public rather then having to search long and had like we do in lab!

Kimmy Profitko

Natural History Post