This is a Southern Leopard Frog. Isn’t he perfectly camouflaged in the mulch beside the Blue Lagoon (former Infinity Pool)? Teddy and I were so excited about a new garden pet and ran for cameras. ‘Leo’ sat patiently and posed for the paparazzi. Then we Googled him. They are indigenous and live in the south east portion of the US. There are 23 types of Leopard frog in the Americas – who knew? I loved the names of the unusual species such as Bigfoot Leopard Frog, Vegas Valley Leopard Frog and my favorite, Montezuma’s Leopard Frog.
They need to live by water so I guess the containment pond is close enough. He has a very distinctive call – Their croaking, chuckling call has been compared to the sound of rubbing an inflated balloon. That is one of the many reasons why I have to wear earplugs at night… Judging the cacophony outside my window there are thousands hundreds living in our reserve.
National Geographic states:
Leopard frogs will eat just about anything they can fit in their mouths. They sit still and wait for prey to happen by, then pounce with their powerful legs. They eat beetles, ants, flies, worms, smaller frogs, including their own species, and even birds, and garter snakes.
WOW! That is an impressive little predator with quite an appetite – and most welcome in our well stocked jungle preserve.
Then Teddy and I realized we had seen a leopard frog before. When we first moved into the street, I was enchanted by all the pumpkins you could buy in autumn. It was a very hot, steamy October and we kept hearing frogs outside the front door. Later we realized that the wee pumpkins had rotted with delicious larvae inside, attracting all the frogs. Even Tim Burton couldn’t create a Halloween scenario like that one!
In retrospect, we wonder if this little green tree frog was hopping away from the gluttonous leopard frog near the pumpkins… It really is a jungle out there!
This is our delightful Frog Lady guide on a trip to El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rica. The Coqui Frog is the symbol of Puerto Rico and sings all night long. This is a link to my post about El Yunque.
references – National Geographic, USNF and Wikipedia
Postcards from Kerry 