Northern Leopard Frog - Lithobates pipiens - Grenouille léopard

Lithobates pipiens (family Ranidae, formerly Rana pipiens) is a species of least concern native to Canada and the United States. Frogs are quite a cool group of amphibians, and beautiful, too. This species is a member of the same family as Lithobates sylvatica (wood frog, also formerly Rana), like the one I posted a photo of last summer.

There were a large number of frogs at the marsh where I studied Caltha palustris while visiting QUBS. I managed to snatch this rather good shot of L. pipiens while there.

L. pipiens

Ranidae is a family also called "true frogs" and refers to those amphibians with the morphology and behaviour of characteristic of frogs (as distinguished from toads and salamanders). This is an evolutionarily ancient family, members of which can be found on every continent except Antarctica.

Yesterday evening E. and I went for a walk and ended up at a small park with a pond near the southern edge of the Glebe, where we saw a heron hunting in the reeds. It appeared to be quite efficient at catching minnows.

Just outside the park I caught a Bufo americanus (American toad, family Bufonidae) which was jumping in the road and returned it to the park. Of course, it peed on me for my trouble, which they tend to do when they're picked up. They also release some fairly noxious things from special glands when handled which can be harmful if you get it in your eyes or ingest it, so wash your hands after handling toads. (Note: they don't give you warts, that's a myth).

Both families (Ranidae, Bufonidae), among others, lay their eggs in water, where they hatch and live for a portion of the life cycle as tailed, limbless tadpoles. They then gradually develop their limbs and lose the tail and become mature adults.

Wood Frog - Rana Sylvatica - Grenouille des Bois

So this is another one spotted at Mont Cayamant. There were some stray puddles along the path (vernal pools), and they were filled to the brim with tiny little frogs and tadpoles. In the photo below, notice that the frog is sitting on a leaf. That's a pretty normal maple leaf, about four inches across or a little less. So the frog is teeny tiny. Note that wood frogs habitually breed in vernal pools, so this was by no means an unexpected finding. What I loved was their sheer number. Just as well, because they wouldn't stay still for photos! I got my feet very wet photographing this little guy.

Immature R. sylvatica

Though the light conditions were rather poor for photographing into the water, I managed to get a shot of a tadpole in its late stages of development:

R. sylvatica tadpole

It was a fun hike.