We all know that spring is a prime time for birds. It’s when they ramp up their singing to attract potential mates, so that they can get down to the very important business of breeding. But spring is also a key time for frogs. Male amphibians belt out their own love songs—though they typically do this at dusk, not dawn. Listen up: here are six frogs that are getting busy—loudly, in some cases—in late spring.
Spring peeper
The spring peeper should probably be called the “spring yeller”: given its tiny size (no bigger than the diameter of a quarter), it may actually be the loudest animal on earth. This frog’s chick-like peeps are audible from more than a kilometre away.
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American bullfrog
The bullfrog is our largest frog species. It can weigh as much as two pounds—heavy for an amphibian—and jump farther than three feet. The male’s mating call is a deep, hoarse drone, a little like the bellow of a bull. By June, breeding males have established their territories, but you can hear them calling into July. ID alert: bullfrogs look very similar to, but are bigger than, green frogs.
Mink frog
Mink frogs have a long breeding season: it lasts from June until August. The males’ breeding calls sound like a repeated, hollow knocking: tuk, tuk, tuk. Mink frogs stink. If threatened, they produce a foul-smelling scent as a defense. The stench is a little like rotting onions.
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Gray treefrog
Not only is this frog a master of disguise, it’s our most arboreal frog species. The 3-cm-long frog spends most of its time in trees, well-hidden, thanks to its superb ability to camouflage. A gray treefrog can alter its skin colour by expanding and contracting a set of pigment cells, changing from green to different shades of grey. You might not see a treefrog, but you can hear it call, for several weeks, starting in late May. It sounds like a cricket.
Wood frog
If it quacks like a duck—and looks like a masked bandit—it might be the wood frog, Ontario’s most terrestrial frog. Once the spring breeding season is over, wood frogs spend most of the summer on the forest floor, searching for insect prey. Keep your eyes peeled. Thanks to their brown skin, wood frogs are easy to mistake for toads.
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Leopard frog
These spotted frogs are active early in the season, as soon as the air temperature rises above 10°C. Soon, they’ve joined the spring peepers, chorus frogs, and others in nightly love songs. A male leopard’s mating call sounds like snoring or chuckling.
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