Rewilding My Lot

I have made it known in my community that I am a nature lover, so when a neighbor found a frog in her garden she asked if I would like it. Of course I did, and so a few minutes later it had taken a short ride in a bucket to be introduced to the environment here.

The first order of business was to identify it. I don’t know much about amphibians, and so I had to use iNaturalist and other resources to help me. I did at least quickly ascertain that it was a frog rather than a toad.

Here’s a summary of what I learned:

• What are some differences between frogs and toads?
  • Toads are a subclass of frogs. In other words, all toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads.
  • The skin of a toad is thicker, dry, and bumpy; the skin of a frog is smoother and moist.
  • Frogs have longer legs than toads.
  • Frogs and toads both need a source of water, but frogs are more likely to be found in water.
  • If disturbed, frogs are more likely to quickly hop away. Toads may just remain motionless (this has been my experience with the toads I have found — examples one and two).
• Our new little friend is probably an American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus). If so, it’s a small one — they can grow up to 6 inches long!
• The circle behind the eye (see photo above) is one of the tympana (eardrums). Males have tympana larger than their eyes, whereas the tympana in females are about the same size as the eyes. I’m not confident to declare mine one or the other.

Here’s what happened when I released the frog on the ground near the pond and moved away to watch.

At first it sat very still for a minute or two. Then it took a couple of hops away from the pond before turning around and jumping onto one of the rocks surrounding the pond.

At that point it took a big leap into the pond, swam to the other side, and disappeared into a rock crevice. I wasn’t quick enough to capture a photo of it in the water.

Later in the day I saw it again and not surprisingly its skin looked moister than when it first arrived here.

It scurried into a log crevice, and that was the last I saw of it for a while.

I think I caught a glimpse of it a few days later as I walked past the pond — something dark that had been sitting in a plant pot (submerged) startled and quickly moved out of sight. Certainly this garden has plenty of hiding places, and obviously water, so perhaps it will make its home here.