Pickerel Frog - Not to be Confused with the Northern Leopard Frog

The Pickerel Frog is commonly confused with the Northern leopard frog; however, if you observe them carefully you will notice that they have brown spots arranged in two rows. They also have distinguishable bright colored inner thighs. The males of this specie, like most specie for frogs, are slightly smaller than the females. Also, they produce toxin from their skin that can be fatal to some animals.

The Pickerel Frogs can be found scattered in areas in North America. For example, they can be found in eastern Texas, and southern areas of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. The Pickerel Frogs will generally find a cool, wooded area to live in. They like areas where there are some amounts of water like streams and springs. In the South, one the other hand, they can be generally found in the warmer waters of the swamps. Don't be mistaken though as the Pickerel Frogs will often wander away from the water, and onto land like in forests.

Generally, the Pickerel frogs will breed once every year from late March to early May. During breeding season, the males will attempt to attract the females with their calls which resembles like a low snore. Females will lay around 700 - 3000 eggs attached to tree branches in permanent or temporary ponds. The eggs are laid together in a mass; however, each egg is fairly small, and has an average diameter of 1.5 millimeters. It does take a couple of months for the tadpoles to metamorphose into small frogs, and a couple more years on top of that before they are ready to reproduce.

The Pickerel Frogs are not much of an importance to humans at the moment or rather we have not found some of their specialties. Because of the toxins that their skin will give off, the Pickerel Frogs are normally not kept as pets - especially since the toxins are irritating for our skins. However, occasionally the Pickerel frogs are used as fishing bait although it is not often as some marine animals will also try to avoid them as well. Despite this, the Pickerel frog's population is slowly declining due to some of the habitat changes that it experiences. Their toxin is quite special though as the Pickerel Frogs are one of the very few poisonous frogs that can be found in United States.

Just like many other species of frogs, the tadpoles of the Pickerel frogs are generally herbivores and will eat the vegetations. However, after the tadpoles have metamorphosed, which will roughly take 3 months, the Pickerel Frogs become carnivores and will eat smaller insects, and other invertebrates.

The Pickerel Frogs can be hard to spot active as they are nocturnal, and they also hibernate. Normally, these frogs will begin their hibernation at the beginning of November. They will burrow into the sediments at the bottom of ponds for the winter, and will wake from hibernation in early spring.

The Pickerel Frogs are an amazing species of poisonous frogs, and we definitely still have much to learn from them, and about them.