Lithobates clamitans

Identification Tips:

Adults
• Green, brown or bronze in colour
• Skin folds extend at least 3/4 way down each side of back from rear of eye (Bullfrogs lack these)
• Eardrum as large or larger than eye
• Dark bars on legs
• When startled, characteristically squawk and leap into water

Tadpoles
• Olive green with irregular dark blotches (not sharply edged black spots as on Bullfrog)
• May reach10 cm length

Egg Masses
• Large masses that may contain several thousand eggs
• Initially floating on water or tangled in vegetation and later sinking

Conservation Status:

British ColumbiaCanadaNatureserve
COSEWICSpecies at Risk Act
Introduced SpeciesNot AssessedNoneG5

Life History:

• Breed May to August
• Tadpoles overwinter once before metamorphosis
• Mature 2 to 3 years after metamorphosis
• Adults and juveniles eat a wide variety of invertebrates
• Tadpoles eat algae, plankton, organic debris, plants.

Habitat:

• All permanent or semi-permanent water bodies
• Breed in shallow water with little or no flow
• Move between water bodies in wet weather, usually at night

Range:

British Columbia
•Introduced species
• Fraser Valley from Vancouver/Richmond east to Hope
• Victoria and Coombs areas on Vancouver Island

Global
• Eastern Manitoba to Maritimes and south to Gulf of Mexico
• Introduced to Newfoundland

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Primary Information Sources:
 Efauna BC: http://ibis.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/efauna/
 BC Conservation Data Centre: http://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/