Home » Life Beneath Still Waters » Wood Frog Natural History

Wood frogs are terrestrial frogs found throughout much of northern North America. Each spring, they migrate to vernal pools to reproduce and then quickly return to the forested uplands. These images show stages in the life cycle of the wood frog.

The wood frog, Lithobates sylvaticus, has the...	Wood frogs are terrestrial creatures spending most of...	Adult wood frogs vary in color from a rosey, almost red,...	Wood frogs can also be very dark. Yet the eye mask and...	In spring, wood frogs travel on rainly nights to vernal...	When a female reaches the pool, she is grabbed by a...
Some males, often referred to as satelite males, do not...	Since males respond to movement, they sometimes grab...	Males, when seeking to mate, will grab almost anything...	Group clusters don't always go well for the female. ...	Wood frogs lay eggs in large clusters in the best area of...	Some communal clutches are enormous floating rafts of...
The wood frog egg mass is a cluster of individual eggs. ...	As wood frog eggs develop, the mass is generally...	The rate at which the embryos develop is dependent upon...	Upon hatching, the tadpoles swarm about the egg mass as...	The hatchling wood frogs have external gills for a few...	The typical wood frog tadpole begins as a black tadpole...
Wood frog tadpoles take about seven to twelve weeks from...	At times, large numbers of metamorphosing tadpoles come...	Metamorphosis is complete when the tail is completely...	Wood frogs forage for invertebrate food including...	Adult wood frogs breed when 2-5 years old. They may...

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