Ribbit Ribbit...

Here is Emilie’s latest hobby – a tank of amphibians.

We have four female American toads, (Bufo americanus) and six frogs – four green frogs (Rana clamitans), a pickerel frog (Rana palustris) and a wood frog (Rana sylvatica). The later two were added to the mix yesterday, so not seen in the above photo. We found the green frogs in our pool. The toads were found in various spots in our yard.

Emilie checks the pool each morning for frogs and skims out any live insects and then relocates them, as breakfast, to the tank. We also walk our yard each evening looking for and catching insects to feed these critters. Fortunately, the toads are not fussy eaters and will pretty much eat whatever insect you drop in, as long as they move. The Japanese beetles, Oriental beetles, and June beetles are plentiful right now and eagerly gobbled up. Other edible insects, that take more effort to catch, are; woodlouse, also known as sow bugs, pillbugs and isopods, centipedes, earwigs, ants, worms, etc.

It’s actually very interesting to watch these amphibians eat. It happens too fast to really see their tongues in action, however, you can hear the sound of their tongues lashing out snatch a meal.

The pickerel frog will need to be released soon. In researching this posting I've learned that pickerel frog are known to be toxic to other frogs - when stressed their skin secrets a toxin that can be fatal to other frogs...